Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has joined other financial intelligence agencies to track down the Russia-related money flows via cryptocurrency transactions to prevent the country from evading international sanctions. The move comes as Australia has included cryptocurrency, or crypto, in its sanctions regime against Russia, which imposes asset freezes on listed individuals and entities from the nation while prohibiting Australians from directly or indirectly providing assets to them. Software firm Station Five’s chief executive Lambros Photios said there were concerns that Russia and its associations would evade sanctions with Bitcoin and Tether, which were pegged to the U.S. dollar. This situation was likely to occur since the rouble was blocked from international credit card transactions, transfers and financial markets. The reason was that crypto was a convenient and anonymous way to store assets, and an individual or organisation could convert a local currency into these digital currencies. “You …