This is a really interesting story. Paper notes printed by a "private" bank that can be converted to digital tokens and which may be backed by a government?

When abroad, the note holder scrapes off a silver film to reveal a QR code, sends this to a Telegram bot, and an agent should theoretically arrive in person with cash, according to promotional materials. But the bot only offers cash drop-offs in dirhams in Dubai and in dollars in Istanbul.

The notes are also redeemable for tokens of A7A5, a cryptocurrency A7 and Promsvyazbank launched last year as the first rouble-pegged stablecoin, advertised as backed by deposits in the state bank’s coffers.

And it's kind of like a halawi system?

representatives for the company explained the nation’s importers could buy promissory notes from A7 and hand these over to, for example, their suppliers in China as an “IOU”, which they said would be guaranteed by Russian law.

A7 then assumes responsibility for settling the transaction. This takes place “outside the banking system”, Akopyan told Vedomosti in September, “without using the Swift system”.

Sanctions work when your target is specific and small. When you try to section large chunks of the world, it's not so successful.

The UK sanctioned A7 in May last year; the US followed in August. But the company has continued to grow, heavily marketing its services across Russian media outlets, with adverts claiming to be able to arrange transactions to China in less than four hours.

If you build a system that excludes enough people, they'll just build their system among themselves. This isn't rocket science.