Earlier quoted context omitted.
So use Monero then. From the exchange's wallet -> your personal software wallet -> hardware wallet. Then use the HW wallet to send coins to Russians, making sure they do something similar (moving the Monero around to a few wallets) on their end to try and cover some tracks. Should be sufficient.
This is everything that's wrong with crypto; it only even attempts to solve the technical problem and ignores or worsens the legal, social and political issues.
OP is trying to pay Russian employees. I figured they already knew that in the current climate it would be illegal.