According to information released at the end of October 2021, Russia will continue to take a prohibitive stance on cryptocurrencies. At least, this is what Dmitry Marinichev, Russian spokesman for the protection of business rights in Vladimir Putin’s government, believes. This information was announced at a major industry event, namely the Blockchain Life 2021 convention. We report on what exactly was said in the article below.
Blockchain Life 2021 was held in Russia
Blockchain Life 2021 took place in Moscow. It is one of the largest and most important forums on topics related to blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. At this year’s convention, probably precisely because it took place in Moscow, Dmitry Marinichev, the Russian ombudsman for the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights, spoke. Marinichev has held his office since 2014 and is himself also involved in the cryptocurrency industry. At one time, he even planned to repurpose his metal factory, Russian Mining Company, into a cryptocurrency digging institution. He argued this with an expected 20% global mining of BTC.
Nonetheless, Marinichev expressed what a negative opinion on the future of cryptocurrencies in this very country. Here is what he said: “I am sure that Russian crypto policy will always be prohibitive, because no one wants to allow Russians to make money from crypto operations and no one will ever allow them to make payments with money other than rubles. It is important to be aware of this.”
Growing interest in cryptocurrencies in Russia
The comments by the ombudsman for the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights stand in contrast to the growing interest of local governments in cryptocurrencies. For example, some ministries are proposing mining Bitcoin (BTC) in tandem with gas production. However, the Russian government remains skeptical of Bitcoin, or at least for a single citizen. Indeed, the Bank of Russia wants to block transactions on certain cryptocurrency exchanges so that Russian citizens cannot conduct such transactions themselves.
The Russian government has also introduced the country’s first “On Digital Financial Assets” law, which deals specifically with trading and owning cryptocurrency assets. However, it assures that this law only applies to large companies, but should not affect individual investors. Time will tell, in fact it will.
