Russia will finalize rules for cross-border crypto payments by the end of 2022
Mikhail Mishustin, the Russian Prime Minister, has ordered the government to establish rules for crypto regulation by the end of this year.
The date for the Russian government to reach an agreement is set for 19 December 2022.
The Prime Minister has explicitly instructed the Duma, as well as other state authorities, that there must be coordinated policies in place regarding the issuance and circulation of cryptocurrencies or digital currencies in Russia.
Not only issuance and circulation, Mishustin has also mentioned the requirement for regulations related to cryptomining and cross-border transactions.
The draft crypto regulations must be synchronized with the Russian Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the anti-money laundering authority Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Tax Service and also the Federal Security Service.
Just a week ago, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev stated that the Bank of Russia was joining the ministry to allow crypto for cross-border payments.
Russia is getting serious about crypto and its use
The Russian government must have the regulations in place by the end of this year. The draft of the document must be ready by 1 December 2022 at the latest.
This demand from the Russian government highlights one aspect. This confirmation shows that Russia has started to take issues related to cryptocurrency, especially for cross-border transactions, seriously.
Russia’s stance on digital assets has been quite polarizing. It wants to approve cross-border transactions while the Russian central bank remains against legalizing stock exchanges and giving digital assets a green light as means of payment.
The idea of banning exchanges but allowing cross-border payments has raised many questions, all the more so because Russia still hasn’t introduced a framework that would provide laws that apply to the same.
How Russia plans to differentiate between domestic and cross-border payments remains to be determined.
Russia happens to be the first country that has agreed to have cross-border payments, but still has not accepted local digital asset payments and exchanges.
Uncertainty about crypto
Russia’s jurisdiction related to digital assets remains ambiguous and uncertain, even after they passed the major crypto-related Digital Financial Assets Law in 2020.
This law prohibited Russians from using cryptocurrency as payment, but still did not ban activities such as crypto trading and mining in Russia.
The financial regulators in Russia have still not approved any such local trading platform for digital assets, but have only allowed trading of digital assets through recognized exchanges such as Binance.
This need to design regulations around cross-border payments is because there must be a simplification of access for foreign investors and issuers to the Russian financial market. A remote identification mechanism must be in place for cross-border transactions to occur without too much hassle.
