Russian Parliament Proposes a Bill to Fine Those Who Illegally Issues or exchange crypto Assets
- The Russian parliament has received a bill for the introduction of fines for illegal issuers or exchangers of cryptocurrencies in Russia.
The Russian parliament is set to discuss a bill seeking financial punishments for the illegal issuance or exchange of digital currencies. This bill’s sponsor had earlier submitted another Bill asking Russia’s lower house to ban the use of cryptos for financial settlement.
Russian Parliament: No More Satoshis
Individuals, officials, or businesses that issue digital currencies illegally might have to pay huge fines soon. However, that is subject to the approval of a bill that the State Duma (Russian parliament’s lower house) received recently.
Keep in mind that the official name for cryptocurrencies in Russia is digital financial assets (DFAs). The issuance or exchange of DFAs is deemed illegal when the issuer and exchanger have no operating license from the appropriate Russian authorities.
All exchanges or investment platforms must have a Russian operating license. As reported by the local media outlet, Forklog, individuals can pay up to 5,000 Russian Rubles ($90) in fines.
Officials can pay up to 30,000 Russian Rubles ($550). The fines for legal entities vary between 700,000 and one million Russian Rubles ($12,000 and $18,000). The financial penalties for businesses and legal entities are roughly within the same minimum (700,000 Russian Rubles).
Anatoly Aksakov, the sponsor of this bill, also heads the financial market committee in the parliament. The high-ranking legislator actively participates in developing regulations for the nation’s crypto sector. Russia’s crypto sector is currently regulated by the “on digital financial assets” guidelines.
However, there will soon be changes to this policy. The Finance Ministry is working on modifying this policy and will soon send its submissions to the legislature. Hence, the next probable date for the Duma to discuss the modified “on digital financial assets” policy would be during the fall session. The legislature passed the “on digital financial assets” guidelines into law in January 2021.
On the Flipside
As the sponsor of this bill, Aksakov has sponsored two bills in the last month. A few weeks ago, he sponsored a bill to disallow DFAs from being used for settling financial transactions. Like in other regions, the fast growth of the crypto space has attracted the attention of the authorities in Moscow.
Hence, it is discussing other regulatory guidelines for the country’s crypto industry. But many legislators see no reason to introduce DFAs to settle financial transactions. They argue that Russia shouldn’t approve any other currency for that purpose apart from the Ruble.
However, Russian authorities (including the central bank of Russia) are considering changing their hard stance about crypto for payment purposes. Russia has received several financial sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine. Hence, the government and the central bank are considering whether to approve DFAs for payment purposes.
But they may likely try it out for small businesses before allowing medium and large-sized companies to start accepting these DFAs. Russia’s central bank has been one of the main antagonists against approving DFAs for payment purposes.
Rebecca is a Senior Staff Writer at BitcoinWisdom, working hard to bring you the latest breaking news in the cryptocurrency market. In the words of Elon Musk “Buy stock in several companies that make products & services that *you* believe in. Only sell if you think their products & services are trending worse. Don’t panic when the market does. This will serve you well in the long-term.”
