Starting January 1, 2021, Russia will start accepting cryptocurrency transactions to an extent. Denying the demand for a complete ban on cryptocurrency in the country, Vladimir Putin has signed a new law where the cryptocurrency is not illegal for the individuals.
Some more sessions will follow this new legal status for cryptocurrency in Russia. So, the residents can expect some more regulations, but as of now, this new law backs aways from a complete Cryptocurrency ban in the country.
Earlier, there was a regulatory filing placed against cryptocurrency under the lens of anti-money laundering regulations. Any activity involving cryptocurrency was seen as a crime and security breach. The Russian government is not seeing this filing as completely accurate though it has limited cryptocurrency transactions, there is a restriction on its use as monetary currency.
In Russia, cryptocurrency transactions will be limited to the mining and trading of cryptocurrencies for other exchanges or cryptocurrencies. Owning cryptocurrencies will no longer be a crime or illegal under Government regulations. The Central Bank of Russia will act as the highest authority to maintain and record the digital financial assets under this law. Every Russian bank and exchange needs to register with the central bank, to perform exchanges of cryptocurrency to maintain a safe and secure transaction system online.
It was the central bank of Russia itself who has opposed the Cryptocurrency since 2014 by linking the digital currencies with money laundering and supporting terrorism in the country. The central bank also issued a letter back in September 2017, warning of criminal activities linked with Cryptocurrency transactions and prohibiting the government from encouraging Russian residents to use Cryptocurrencies.
Russia is a country that follows a complete surveillance state of digital activity via a national internet sensor, Roscomnadzor, that centralizes all the internet activities in Russia and protects against any misuse from other countries. And, this new Cryptocurrency regulation law follows a similar approach, building a centralized governmental institution to manage the monitoring of the transactions flow.
We must say that Russia has followed a pragmatic and liberal approach to Crypto law. In the past, many had predicted a complete ban on Cryptocurrency due to its vulnerability to theft and laundering online. Anatoly Aksakov, head of State Duma Committee, said that a more detailed law on Cryptocurrency regulations in the country would be provided in the further autumn sessions of court.
