Once again, Russia plans to leave no window for adopting cryptocurrencies in the state.
On June 7, the head of the Financial Markets Committee of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber (State Duma) Anatoly Aksakov issued a bill, regarding a ban on digital assets as a legal payment method. The official cover note depicted:
“The ruble is the official monetary unit (currency) of the Russian Federation. The aforementioned article sets a prohibition against the introduction of other monetary units or monetary surrogates on the territory of the Russian Federation.”
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Actually, this isn’t the first time that crypto traders have seen Russia’s government going back and forth on legalizing or banning crypto use in the country. For instance, back in May, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation (Minpromtorg) Denis Manturov stated that Russia was actually planning to authorize payments in cryptocurrencies.
On top of that, the new bill arrives right after the Russian Central Bank provided its customers the ability to pay for foreign transactions with cryptocurrencies earlier this week. However, Ksenia Yudaeva, a senior official at the Bank of Russia, stated that the broader society shouldn’t adopt the use of crypto due to possible financial risks:
“We still believe that the active use of cryptocurrency within the country, especially within Russia’s financial infrastructure, creates great risks for citizens and users. We believe that in our country, those risks could be reasonably large.”
Moreover, the newly proposed bill corresponds to another federal law that was proposed on July 31, 2020, accepted by the State Duma, and approved by the Federation Council. The legislation dictates that digital financial assets (DFAs) are not completely banned as a payment method. However, if President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Federal Council approves the recently issued bill, DFAs would be fully prohibited.
In addition, the director of the Russian Ministry of Finance’s financial policy department Ivan Chebeskov backfired on the bill. He implied that crypto use in Russia shouldn’t be restricted as it might be a perfect way for the country to boost its competitiveness in the global tech sector. Additionally, residents of the state should have the possibility to pay for goods and services in various cryptocurrencies, according to Chebeskov.
Back in March, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Energy Evgeny Grabchak was looking to legalize crypto mining on a "regional level" at determined "sites.” On the contrary, earlier in June, the New York State Senate approved the bill to ban crypto mining. However, NY’s governor Katy Hochul hasn’t yet announced whether she would approve or overturn the bill.
