Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday officially directed the government to build a consensus regarding crypto regulation in Russia by December 19, 2022.
The prime minister specifically called on the Duma and other state authorities to come up with coordinated policies to regulate the issuance and circulation of digital currencies in Russia. Mishustin also called on regulators to finalize regulations for cryptocurrency mining and cross-border transactions in digital currencies.
The official stressed that the upcoming draft crypto regulations should be aligned with the Russian Ministry of Finance, the central bank, anti-money laundering authority Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Tax Service and the Federal Security Service.
The latest news brings another official confirmation that Russia is growing serious about the potential of cryptocurrencies for cross-border transactions.
Last week, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev reported that the Bank of Russia has agreed with the Ministry of Finance to legalize crypto for cross-border payments. Despite its desire to authorize cross-border transactions, the Russian central bank still opposed the legalization of local crypto exchanges as well as the legalization of cryptocurrency as a means of payment.
The feasibility of banning domestic crypto exchanges while allowing cross-border payments clearly raises a lot of questions, especially given that Russia has not yet put in place a framework to provide for such legislation.
According to Maria Agranovskaya, legal counsel and fintech expert in the Russian State Duma, Russia may be the first country in the world to authorize cross-border crypto payments while banning local crypto payments. “This is not a common approach to my knowledge,” she said.
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Agranovskaya said the question that remains to be answered is how Russia will differentiate between domestic and cross-border crypto payments. “This distinction doesn’t exist yet. All ‘foreign’ crypto is considered a digital currency and that’s it for now,” he said,
“At the moment it is not at all clear. I think the case would be in line with currency control regulations – tax residents in the local area would not be allowed to use crypto for payments internally.”
Despite the adoption of its major crypto-related legislation on digital financial assets in 2020, Russia has emerged as one of the most precarious jurisdictions for crypto. The law barred Russians from using cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, but did not ban activities such as crypto trading and mining. in country. Russian financial regulators have not approved any local crypto trading platforms, only allowing crypto trades through foreign crypto exchanges such as Binance.
