Russia to ban internal use of cryptocurrencies – MP

The internal circulation of cryptocurrency will soon be “completely banned” in Russia, deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Anton Tkachev said in an interview with Parlamentskaya Gazeta news outlet on Monday.

While cryptocurrencies are legal in Russia, their use is limited and insufficiently regulated, which the authorities have been working to amend, according to the MP.

Tkachev explained that ordinary Russians won’t be able to use cryptocurrencies to shop inside the country under the planned amendments to crypto laws. He did not specify when such amendments may come into force.

Russian businesses, on the other hand, should be allowed to conduct crypto transactions, Tkachev said, especially amid Ukraine-related Western sanctions that effectively cut Russia off from the Western financial system. He noted that the country’s central bank and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have already developed a tool for conducting cross-border payments. The system is currently being tested and is expected to be introduced within several months.

“Once the testing is completed, the government will be able to carry out transactions in cryptocurrency officially,” he said, noting that Russian businesses would be able to choose between paying foreign partners in cryptocurrency or in digital rubles.

“The digital ruble is currently used only within the country, so far there have been no cross-border transactions... But the digital ruble makes it possible to conduct transactions without intermediary financial organizations,” solving the problem of international settlements amid sanctions, he explained.

“Companies that trade using cryptocurrencies are not subject to sanctions pressure, because tracking payments becomes much more difficult,” according to Tkachev.

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