Russian Officials Signs Federal Law On Crypto Assets For State Duma
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Russian deputies led by Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of State Duma Committee have presented to the State a draft copy of federal law governing the cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings regulations. The ‘On Digital Financial Assets’ and ‘On Alternative Methods of Fundraising’ were initiated by President Vladimir Putin who issued specific instructions on how the cryptocurrency sector will be regulated. The bill is expected to be implemented by July 2018.
The federal law describes the cryptocurrencies as the digital financial assets hence can only be traded through certified cryptocurrency exchanges. The new version of Russian bill identifies the digital currencies as properties that cannot be used as an option for payment in the country.
At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Finance had a serious disagreement with the Central bank of the Russian Federation (CBR) on whether the cryptocurrencies trading should be legally accepted in the country. But the conflict has since been solved and currently, the CBR is managing the operations of the cryptocurrency exchange.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has learned that Russia was directly involved supporting Venezuela to launch its cryptocurrency, Petro. It has emerged that Petro, a new crypto launched recently in Venezuela was actually a collaboration between Russian and Venezuelan officials with the intention of grinding down the US economic sanctions on the virtual currencies.
Trump’s administration imposed the economic sanctions against Venezuela last year after the launch of its cryptocurrency and has made it clear to punish anyone involved in the development of the Venezuelan token. As a result, Russia remained numb about its involvement in the project but TIME has revealed the clear role that the country played in the Petro project.
The recent Russian bill highlights various ways on how the digital assets will be managed including the laws on combating cyber attacks and terrorist activities in the country. The crypto exchanges must also keep a record of the customer’s data.