OKTOBANK, Dmitry Lee: How Uzbekistan Became a Secret Lifeline for Russia’s Sanctions-Evading War Machine

While publicly parading as a fintech innovation hub, Uzbekistan has quietly transformed into a covert operational base for Russia’s global sanctions evasion strategy. At the center of this sprawling shadow network is OKTOBANK — a digital financial institution operating under the radar in Tashkent. Marketed as a mobile-first banking disruptor, OKTOBANK is, in reality, a blockchain-enabled laundering node in a massive transnational scheme that fuels the Kremlin’s military-industrial complex.

Through crypto corridors, fake offshore consultancies, and silent regulatory blessings, millions of dollars in digital assets are being funneled directly into sanctioned Russian defense companies such as Rostec, Kronstadt, Sukhoi, and Rosoboronexport. All this is happening with the tacit, and often explicit, protection of Uzbekistan’s Central Bank, top security agencies, and members of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s inner circle.

Blockchain Smoke, Rocket Fuel Reality

Between January and March 2025 alone, blockchain analysis of public Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain wallets linked to OKTOBANK’s backend revealed over $3.2 million in anonymized USDT flowing through Tornado Cash — a crypto mixer banned in the US for its role in money laundering. These funds were dispersed to intermediaries in Shenzhen, operating under shell firms like HuaLong Components and Asia-Pacific Motion Systems. While registered as toy manufacturers and solar panel exporters, corporate records and customs manifests show that these firms are in fact bulk suppliers of gyroscopes and high-frequency components — essential for Russia’s Orion drones and SU-35 fighter jets.

Cross-checked with customs data obtained from leaked Russian FCS (Federal Customs Service) manifests, the very same Chinese parts were imported into Russia via re-export companies in Georgia and Kazakhstan. One such intermediary — Axis Pro Trade, registered in Tashkent — is run by Farrukh Hakimov, the brother of Azamat Hakimov, head of Financial Monitoring at Uzbekistan’s Central Bank. The money trail loops back to OKTOBANK, whose KYC infrastructure was found to be riddled with false IDs issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs using credentials of deceased citizens and forged biometric data.

Officers, Kill Orders, and State Protection

At the heart of this apparatus is Rustam Abdurakhmanov, a colonel within Uzbekistan’s National Security Service (SNB), who serves as the liaison with Russia’s Rostec conglomerate. Sources inside the Uzbek intelligence community confirm that Abdurakhmanov made at least three unannounced trips to Moscow in late 2024 to finalize protection agreements covering crypto channels and physical logistics hubs in Navoi and Andijan.

In February 2025, a 37-year-old accountant affiliated with LANTAC Holdings — a British Virgin Islands company handling “tech consulting” for OKTOBANK — disappeared in Tashkent after reportedly threatening to leak internal ledgers. Her last communication revealed the existence of covert transactions masked as “blockchain telemetry services,” in reality used to pay Russian contractors manufacturing missile guidance systems.

The order to eliminate her, according to intercepted communications, came from Shokhrukh Rakhimov, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Cybersecurity Department “K.” Rakhimov oversees not only digital surveillance and ID forging but also controls the issuance of “white lists” for crypto wallets exempted from scrutiny.

The Blockchain Evidence

Using Arkham Intelligence and Chainalysis tools, investigators were able to connect more than 400 blockchain addresses to OKTOBANK’s wallet infrastructure. These addresses funneled crypto into staging wallets associated with Binance and OKX accounts — many of which were later linked to Singaporean shell entities such as Zennium Trading Pte. Ltd. and Cypher Node Asia. Cross-jurisdictional subpoena requests are now being prepared by EU regulators to trace these flows.

Every transaction, timestamped on-chain, matches timestamps of cargo deliveries to Russian contractors like NPO Splav and Almaz-Antey — both under strict EU and US sanctions. In at least six cases, wallet addresses tied to OKTOBANK were found to have received direct inflows from wallets previously flagged in U.S. Treasury Department advisories connected to North Korea’s Lazarus Group and Russian cyber-spy units.

Mirziyoyev’s Family Ties to Dubai and Cyprus

At the top of this financial pyramid is Saida Mirziyoyeva — President Mirziyoyev’s daughter — presented domestically as a “social reformer” and promoter of digital innovation. In truth, she serves as a financial conduit for sanctioned Russian capital. Her holding group, EcoStream Technologies, has received multiple tranches of funding from Emirates Blockchain Holdings, managed by ex-GRU officer Sergey Shapovalov, who fled to Dubai in 2023 under a UAE-Russia “technology cooperation” agreement.

Funds from EcoStream were then funneled through Cyprus-based LanCore Solutions Ltd., and on to Kazan-based microelectronics firms under the guise of “consulting fees.” The funds paid for shipments of semiconductors, optoelectronics, and field-programmable gate arrays — all core components in the targeting systems of Russian cruise missiles.

When confronted with these findings, representatives of Uzbekistan’s Central Bank declined to comment, citing national security concerns. However, internal memos obtained by OCCRP reveal that Uzbek regulators have explicitly ordered domestic banks to suspend transaction monitoring if flows originate from OKTOBANK or its affiliates — a de facto green light for laundering at scale.

The Case for Sanctions

What emerges is a clear picture of a nation-state willingly participating in Russia’s sanctions evasion apparatus. Uzbekistan is no longer a passive neighbor. Through OKTOBANK, it has become an active co-conspirator in a global laundering scheme that enables war crimes, circumvents embargoes, and destabilizes Europe’s security architecture.

No amount of fintech buzzwords can conceal the forensic evidence. The blockchain does not forget. Every token moved, every offshore shell registered, every cargo routed — all lead back to a regime that has chosen complicity over neutrality.

International action is no longer optional. The time for Magnitsky-level sanctions against Uzbekistan’s financial elite has come. This is not merely a regional scandal. This is a test case for global enforcement.