Russia is reportedly considering crypto use for international payments
Russia’s central bank has revealed that the country may reconsider using crypto for international payments, local news agency TASS reported on September 5.
According to the report, Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said that the apex bank and the Ministry of Finance may soon legalize crypto payments.
Moiseev continued that Russians’ reliance on foreign platforms for crypto transactions further underscores the need to legalize the industry locally.
Moiseev said:
“Now people are opening crypto wallets outside of Russia. It is necessary that this can be done in Russia, that this is done by entities under the supervision of the Central Bank, which are required to comply with the requirements of the anti-money laundering legislation, and first of all, of course, to know his client.”
Russia has faced increased scrutiny and sanctions from Western countries over its invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions sparked talk of the possibility that Russia could use crypto to avoid those sanctions, but crypto industry stakeholders have insisted that this is not possible.
Russia’s stance on crypto remains unclear as President Vladimir Putin recently signed a law banning the payment of local cryptocurrencies in the country.
Meanwhile, Russia is not the only country considering using crypto to circumvent sanctions. Iran recently completed its first foreign trade order using $10 million worth of cryptocurrency to import goods.
UK orders crypto exchanges to report Russia-linked transactions
British authorities have formulated new rules that mandate crypto exchanges to report transactions linked to sanctioned entities such as Russia, the Guardian reported on September 4.
The new official guidance stated that crypto exchanges should also freeze crypto assets from these sanctioned entities.
The policy described “cryptocurrency” as digital currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), etc., and non-fungible tokens.
The move follows suspicions that Russia may be using crypto to circumvent sanctions.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance is said to have said:
“It is important to address the risk of crypto-assets being used to breach or circumvent financial sanctions. These new requirements will cover firms that either register holdings of, or enable the transfer of, crypto-assets, and are therefore most likely to have relevant information.”
