Russian authorities are preparing to send to court the case of IT specialist Yuri Belenky, accused of "financing terrorism" (Part 1.1 of Article 205.1 of the Criminal Code). Since 2015, Belenky lived in Bulgaria and regularly visited Russia. In September 2025, he was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport and arrested for "petty hooliganism," and after leaving the special detention center, he was detained again—this time on the "terrorist" charge, according to the human rights project First Department.
Initially, Belenky was charged with six transfers totaling 742.26 USDT (about 62,000 rubles) to a cryptocurrency wallet published by journalist Arkady Babchenko for fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Azov regiment. In October 2025, the Investigative Committee sent Binance a request about six users who transferred funds to this address.
In response, the exchange provided a detailed report on Belenky's account since registration: personal data, scans of his Russian passport and Bulgarian residence permit, photos from KYC verification, transaction history, login data, geolocation, and devices used. From this report, investigators learned of nine additional transfers to Babchenko's address that they had not known about. In the final indictment, Belenky is charged with 15 transfers totaling 1,680.69 USDT.
Information about the new transactions was passed to the Federal Security Service (FSB) to consider opening a criminal case under Article 275 of the Criminal Code ("high treason"). Additionally, from Binance's response, the Investigative Committee learned of Belenky's transfers to the Ukrainian organization "Sprava gromad" and the cryptocurrency exchange Kuna.
At the time of the request, Belenky was registered with Binance as a European client: after restrictions were introduced for Russian users, he provided the exchange with his Bulgarian residence permit. According to First Department, the transfer of data directly to Russian authorities without using international legal assistance mechanisms violates several provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Belenky's lawyer tried to verify the authenticity of Binance's response to the Investigative Committee, but the company said it does not accept legal requests via email and does not disclose information about third parties without a court order. In response to First Department's inquiry, the exchange cited its privacy policy without commenting on the data transfer. After the case was opened, Babchenko said he had not received donations from Belenky.