Former Coordination Council Secretary Says He Was Mistaken for Russian Scientist on Sanctions List
Reform.news Editorial Team · 28 September 2026, 17:44
https://reform.news/en/former-coordination-council-secretary-says-he-was-mistaken-for-russian-scientist-on-sanctions-list/Former secretary of the Belarusian Coordination Council Ivan Krautsou (Kravtsov) said that after Britain imposed sanctions on a person with the same full name, he encountered account blocks and additional payment checks. He wrote about this on Facebook on September 28.
On July 6, the United Kingdom added Ivan Sergeyevich Kravtsov, head of the fourth research department at Russia’s Signal research center, to its sanctions list. London links the center to the development of chemical weapons. The British notice spelled the scientist’s surname as Kravstov.
Belarusian politician Ivan Krautsou’s patronymic is Yauhenyevich. He said that on the day the sanctions were imposed, he received notifications that his Google, Wise and banking service accounts, as well as other payment-related accounts, had been blocked. The companies asked him to provide his patronymic; some restored access after he replied by email, without requiring supporting documents.
Krautsou also said that his bank’s correspondent bank took 17 days to review a SWIFT transfer of several thousand euros outside the EU. According to him, on September 28, bus operator Lux Express also asked him to confirm his patronymic before selling him a ticket.
The politician believes such cases are linked to insufficient information in sanctions records to distinguish between people with identical names. Krautsou noted that EU records on some Signal employees sanctioned three days earlier contained more identifying information. The EU announced those restrictions on July 3.
In 2020, Ivan Krautsou was a member of Viktar Babaryka’s election campaign team. He later became executive secretary of the Coordination Council. In August 2026, Krautsou left the post and returned to serving as a CC delegate.