Arms and Russian weapon manufacturer Soyuzmash asked for the permission to Central Bank to start accepting bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments for weapon deals so they can bypass the US sanctions. Vladimir Gutenev, the vice president of Soyuzmash, told the advisory council that the current conditions are very tough due to the harsh sanctions that were imposed by the United States. Because of the strong sanctions pressure the environment is not a competitive one and that is why they are considering bitcoin payments for weapons since the transactions are increasingly difficult.