Russia has been busy in 2018 doing other things other than just hosting the FIFA world cup. Russia has been busy trying to pass cryptocurrency regulation since the start of the year with no success as of yet. The government’s main bill on digital technologies that was expected to have been passed by July 1 according to the wishes of Russian president Vladimir Putin, will be pushed to October during the Duma session. The self-proclaimed “first” lawyer in the Commonwealth of independent states (CIS) to begin working with Blockchain startups as well, Artem Tolkachev explains the reason why the legislation did not beat the July 1 deadline by stating that the complexity of the subject as well as the lack of consensus among state authorities made it impossible. There were still too many loose strings on how regulation was going to take place.
The questions about how to regulate cryptocureencies in Russia have taken the form of conflict between the Russian central bank’s conservative stance and the Ministry of economic development’s eagerness to embrace crypto technology in order to make the country a business attrction. Tolkachev the founder of the blockchain lab at Deloitte CIS said that the current version of the crypto and blockchain legislation on the Russian parliament’s floor of the house was in form of three draft bills. These bills were on “digital technologies”, “regulation of the central bank on crowdfunding including ICO’s” as well as “amendments on Russian civil code”
Both Tolkachev and the president of the Russian association on cryptocurrency Yuri Pripachkin agree that the draft bills were both ineffective and insufficient. May 22 saw the first reading of the most recent version of the bill as a;pproved by the State Duma. An uodated version of the bill as reported on September 19 included a definition of cryptocurrency as well as a definition of mining as the “release of tokens to attract investment in capital”. The bill does not make cryopto a legitimate means of payment rather the central bank, the ministry of economic development and the ministry of finance will create separate guidelines for the currencies to be used as legitimate means of payment.
A representative of the Russian presiendt Dmitry Peskov, suggested back in early September that Russia was not ready for the circulation and issuance of crypto currencies since it contradicts the basic functions of govermenmet. He suggested the creation of a regulatory sandbox in the country instead with regard to crypto. A group of lobbyists recently announced that they were working on an alternative crypto regulation bill to clarify the supposed contractions in the existing bill on digital financial assets. The new bill would divide digital assets into three grpooups, namely; tokens, digital signs and crypto currencies.
The president Vladimir putin has not made clear definitive statements on the future of crypto in Russia despite having instigated the now passed deadline on crypto. His country has however moved to create cryptorubble which would be used to alleviate economic pressure and protect the country against economic pressure due to western sanctions
