China is also a country that is not friendly to cryptocurrencies, but they are a strategic partner and ally of Russia. So I don't think Russia is using crypto to avoid sanctions and Western countries are being aggressive with crypto because of Russia.
Russia and China are using crypto, including USDT for transactions with one another. This way they avoid sanctions and make payments much faster and more unnoticeably to the outside world.On the official agenda, they may be against cryptocurrencies, but this does not mean that they do not use them for personal gain.
China doesn't use cryptocurrencies, their citizens use cryptocurrencies. This means that the government doesn't use crypto to avoid sanctions, to be honest, they don't need it because they produce everything and export goods to countries like the USA.
Will cryptocurrency save the Russian economy from the impending steep dive into which it plunged itself with the attack on Ukraine? The answer will be very soon.
Mate, two years have passed, do you expect an answer soon? The answer is here, sanctions didn't affect Russia the way everyone was expecting because Russia can buy goods from neighbours like Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and etc... Buying process became slightly difficult for Russia and slightly expensive because of 3rd party countries, otherwise, there aren't devastating situation because of that ban.