A recent vacancy posted on a Russian recruitment site sought a project manager to build a business “from scratch” in Togo, west Africa. The employer would be A7, a Russian cryptocurrency network under western sanctions, run by a fugitive oligarch and a state defence sector bank.
The advert is the latest sign that Moscow is seeking to build an alternative payments system after its banks were cut off by the west in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The company’s eye on Africa tracks with Moscow’s expanding influence across the continent. Russia has strengthened its presence in several African countries in recent years, making new political inroads following a string of coups in the Sahel region and in Madagascar, and signing a series of trade and military deals.
A7 and its backers may be seeking to “integrate their operation into the Kremlin’s larger strategic machine in Africa,” according to Elise Thomas, senior investigator at the Centre for Information Resilience, a London-based non-profit research group.
The payments network opened an office in Nigeria last autumn, videos showed, and also announced a new branch in Zimbabwe.
It remains unclear if A7 has handled any operations at those offices and they have little footprint online, Thomas wrote in a recent report. Several people involved in cryptocurrency in the two African countries told the FT they were not aware of the company. There is also no further indication of a presence in Togo beyond the online vacancy.
But the efforts are notable as part of Moscow’s strategy to adapt to sanctions. A7 was founded in 2024 by fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Șor and Russian defence sector lender Promsvyazbank (PSB), both under western sanctions. It uses an array of creative methods, from stablecoins to promissory notes, to keep roubles flowing around the world.
In promotional materials, it has claimed to handle as much as 19 per cent of Russia’s foreign trade transactions, though it is impossible to verify those numbers.
“Originally, our international payment platform was conceived as a response to illegally imposed international sanctions,” A7 founder Șor said last autumn when announcing the new Lagos and Harare offices.
“But, as practice has shown, this mechanism has proven to be very effective and convenient. That is why other countries have expressed interest and requested to use our system. And we decided to expand to the African continent,” he said, according to Russian media outlet Lenta.
Videos shared on social media of the launch of the Lagos office, analysed by CIR, show a large space decked with A7 logos. There is no information about the Russian payments network in Zimbabwe beyond an article in the local newspaper, The Herald.
Zimbabwe’s finance ministry, A7 and Șor did not respond to requests for comment. Nigeria’s finance minister said an event may have taken place.
“The project is being implemented with the comprehensive support of government financial agencies of all parties,” Mikhail Dorofeev, deputy chair of PSB, said about the Nigeria and Zimbabwe openings, according to state news agency Interfax. He spoke of “a shared interest in . . . scaling a stable and sanctions-resilient cross-border settlements system”.
US financial sanctions have pushed some countries to seek alternatives, including payment systems insulated from the dollar. Yet these efforts remained small and largely peripheral.
Russia’s response, after being cut off from the Swift interbank messaging system and hit by western sanctions on many of its major banks, was to build a workable alternative.
A7 says it provides a fast and uninterrupted payments system for its trading partners, and Russia has many in Africa. Zimbabwe, for example, imports a substantial share of fertilisers for its agricultural sector from Russia.
At a Russia-Africa conference in Cairo in December, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said 84 per cent of Russia’s trade with African countries was conducted in roubles between January and September 2025. He added that finding “reliable mechanisms for mutual settlements in national currencies” was a priority.
Lavrov described A7 as Russia’s “first international financial platform”. “Nigeria and Zimbabwe have already joined the platform. We invite all our other African partners to follow their example,” he told ministers.
Videos of the Nigeria office launch, shared on Instagram by the catering company hired for the events, show some of the attendees, including US-Belarusian businessman Alexander Zingman.
Zingman is known for brokering deals across Africa, primarily for the sale of Belarusian agricultural and mining machinery. He was briefly detained in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2021 on allegations of arms dealing, which his lawyer described at the time as “categorically false” and politically motivated. He was released soon after without charge.
Zingman’s lawyer confirmed that the businessman attended the A7 Nigeria launch event, as his company sells agricultural equipment in the region. But he “does not have any relationship with the A7 platform, and did not have any role in bringing the A7 platform to Nigeria or any other African nation”, nor in organising the event.
The videos also show Igor Khimich, close associate of Șor and a former member of his eponymous Moldovan political party. The party was ruled unconstitutional in 2023 for promoting Russian interests in Moldova.
In late January, Africa Intelligence, a specialist media outlet, reported that Khimich and PSB’s Dorofeev made a discreet visit by private jet to Madagascar, citing a leaked passenger manifest.
The FT was unable to confirm the visit or reach Dorofeev or Khimich for comment.
Russia’s relations with Madagascar have intensified since a military coup in the country in October 2025. Russian military instructors from the defence ministry’s Africa Corps — an heir to the Wagner private military company — have been deployed in Madagascar to train local troops.
In November, Putin received the longtime leader of Togo, Faure Gnassingbé, and penned a military co-operation agreement.
“Our trade and economic activity have steadily been developing,” Putin said. “We are entering a new era of bilateral relations.”
