Russia aims to set rules for border encryption by the end of the year
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday officially instructed the government to reach an agreement on crypto regulation in Russia by December 19, 2022.
The prime minister specifically asked the Duma and other state authorities to come up with coordinated guidelines for regulating the issuance and circulation of digital currencies in Russia. Mishustin also asked regulators to finalize regulations on cryptocurrency mining and cross-border transactions in digital currencies.
The official emphasized that the upcoming draft of crypto regulations should be aligned with the Russian Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the anti-money laundering agency Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Tax Service and the Federal Security Service.
The latest news brings yet another official confirmation that Russia has become increasingly serious about the possibility 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 willingness to approve cross-border transactions, the Russian central bank remained opposed to the legalization of local crypto exchanges as well as the legalization of cryptocurrency as a means of payment.
The possibility of banning domestic crypto-exchanges while allowing cross-border payments apparently raises many questions, especially given that Russia has yet to come up with a framework to enact such laws.
Russia may be the first country in the world to authorize cross-border crypto payments while banning local crypto payments, according to Maria Agranovskaya, a legal lawyer and fintech expert in the Russian State Duma, told Cointelegraph. “This is not a common approach, as far as I know,” she said.
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The question of how exactly Russia plans to distinguish between domestic and cross-border crypto payments has yet to be answered, Agranovskaya noted. “This distinction doesn’t exist yet. All ‘foreign’ crypto is seen as digital currency and that’s it for now,” she said, adding:
– It is completely unclear at the moment. I guess the matter should be in line with the exchange control regulations – tax residents of the local territory will not be allowed to use crypto for internal payment.”
Russia has emerged as one of the most uncertain jurisdictions for crypto, despite passing its major crypto-related law, On Digital Financial Assets, in 2020. The law banned Russians from using cryptocurrency as payment, but did not ban activities such as crypto trading and mining . in the country. Russian financial regulators have not approved any local crypto trading platform, they only allow crypto trading through foreign crypto exchanges such as Binance.
