As a fintech expert in the Russian State Duma said, Russia going to be the first country in the world to permit cross-border crypto payments whereas banning local crypto payments. She told Cointelegraph, “This isn’t a common approach, to my knowledge.”
On Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin officially instructed the government to come to a agreement regarding crypto regulation in Russia by Dec. 19, 2022.
The prime minister specifically called on the Duma and other state authorities to come up with corresponding policies on regulating the issue and circulation of digital currencies in Russia. Mishustin also asked regulators to complete regulations for cryptocurrency mining and cross-border transactions in digital currencies.
The official claimed that the upcoming draft crypto regulations should be associated with the Russian Finance Ministry, the central bank, the Anti-Money Laundering authority Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Tax Service, and the Federal Security Service.
The latest news confirmed by an offocial that Russia has been increasingly getting serious about the possibility of cryptocurrencies for cross-border transactions.
Deputy finance minister Alexei Moiseev reported that the Bank of Russia has approved the finance ministry to legalize cross-border transactions. Despite its readiness to sanction cross-border transactions, the Russian central bank still conflicts with the legalization of local crypto exchanges as well as permitting cryptocurrency as a means of payment.
The possibility of outlawing domestic crypto exchanges while allowing cross-border payments apparently raises a lot of oppositions, particularly given that Russia is yet to come up with a framework to afford such laws.
Though there is a doubt that how exactly Russia plans to differentiate between domestic and cross-border crypto payments is yet to be answered, Agranovskaya noted. “This distinction is not yet in existence. All ‘foreign’ crypto is regarded as digital currency and that’s it for now,” she said, adding:
“It is absolutely unclear at the moment. I presume the matter shall be in line with the currency control regulations — tax residents in the local territory would not be allowed to use crypto for payments internally.”
Russia has appeared as one of the most uncertain jurisdictions to crypto, despite adopting its vital crypto related law, “On Digital Financial Assets,” in 2020. The law banned Russians from using cryptocurrency as payment but didn’t ban events like crypto trading and mining in the country. Russian financial regulators have not approved any local crypto trading platform, only permitting crypto trades through foreign crypto exchanges like Binance.
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