(PresidentialWire.com)- This week, former 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton demanded to know why cryptocurrency exchanges haven’t banned all Russian users from their platforms in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Looking haggard and angry, the former Secretary of State appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Monday night where she expressed her disappointment that some crypto exchanges refuse to end transactions with Russia “for some philosophy of libertarianism or whatever.”
Hillary told Maddow that everybody should be doing everything they can to isolate Russia’s economy.
But Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one making demands.
On Sunday, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov asked cryptocurrency exchanges to block, not just sanctioned Russians, but all Russian users.
Fedorov said on Twitter that it wasn’t enough to impose targeted blocks on Russian and Belarusian politicians. Instead, he demanded crypto exchanges also “sabotage” ordinary Russians.
However, major cryptocurrency exchanges are resisting the call for a blanket freeze on all Russian IP addresses.
The exchange Kraken said in a statement that freezing the access of citizens “from an entire country” won’t punish the people responsible for the invasion who might have already prepared for sanctions.
In its statement, Kraken said a blanket freeze would cause “serious and unnecessary harm” to people who “played no part” in Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine.
Coinbase likewise said it would not institute a blanket ban on all Russian addresses, opting instead to implement more targeted sanctions.
In its statement, Binance argued that cryptocurrency is designed to provide “greater financial freedom,” and unilaterally banning access “would fly in the face of the reason” crypto exists.
However, Binance is taking action against those on whom sanctions have been imposed, and said it would take additional action “should the international community widen those sanctions further.”
On Thursday Binance confirmed that cardholders from sanctioned Russian banks would not be able to use them on its platform. Likewise, sanctioned individuals have had their access to Binance restricted as well.
