Russian Finance Ministry to Introduce Cryptocurrency Regulatory Bill

Russian cryptocurrency trading and mining industry have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The country is currently facing a social boycott and a severe series of financial sanctions due to the matter of Ukraine war issues. A few days ago, the US and EU legislators joined hands in trying to ban cryptocurrency access to the Russian government.

However, the MiCA was eventually rejected by the European and American Central Banks. There have been fears circulating about the rise of the cryptocurrency industry in Russia, claiming that the country might be able to evade financial sanctions through cryptocurrencies. Recently, the Russian Ministry of Finance took the initiative to draft a cryptocurrency regulatory bill and discuss the matter of crypto mining on a state level.

Crypto Legislative Charter

The Russian Minister of Finance recently submitted a detailed legislative charter in the parliament regarding crypto mining and crypto trading laws. The news was published by the local Russian outlet called Kommersant recently. The charter titled On Digital Currency presents examples related to crypto trading practices among professional and non-professional investors.

According to the Kommersant report, the bill also deals with the subject of introducing specified laws for cryptocurrency trading, mining, and product evaluation practices. The legislators in Russia are trying to provide legal certainty to the investors who are still operating without any legal certainty in the country. The experts also claim that the lack of regulatory clarity has pushed the Russian crypto traders into the illegal markets and created many legal obstacles for them.

Russia is the largest country in the world in terms of occupied areas. However, after the recent western sanctions, the legal tender of the country, i.e., the Ruble, is suffering from a massive devaluation. As per Russian media outlets, the digital currency bill can be used as the basis to make crypto-related payments legal in the region for a while. Last year, the Central Bank of Russia and Russian financial regulators cited a clash of opinions about cryptocurrency payments.

However, the political leadership of the country eventually claimed that the state was swaying in favor of cryptocurrency regulations rather than imposing a ban. Russian blockchain legal expert and lawyer Mikhail Uspensky shares that the current legal criteria for the crypto operators are so stringent that only a select few financial organizations and lending platforms can comply. Andrey Tugarin from GMT Legal said that the Russian citizens are not barred from registering with the foreign cryptocurrency investors by the Russian government but by platforms like Coinbase and Binance.