The way it one of the ways it work is that Vlad the blackmailer buys a bunch of digital artwork from Irina the artist using bitcoin, who then convert the bitcoin to cash in order to purchase something for her husband Vlad the legitimate businessman.

And because none of the wallets aren't accurately linked to real persons all tree actors in the above transaction could be the same entity with 3 distinct fictional personas.

Add to that that the former soviet block is littered with regions where nobody really agrees on who the legitimate government is and where the entire economy happens using foreign currency, there is plenty of ways to deliberately block investigations from simply following the money trail.