State Duma: Russia will become a laughing stock because of the Central Bank’s stance on cryptocurrencies

The members of the expert group in the State Duma did not support the regulator’s idea to ban the turnover of digital assets

24.01.2022 - 10:05

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2 min

What’s new? The members of the State Duma working group, which is developing the regulation of cryptocurrency turnover in Russia, did not approve the bans proposed by the Central Bank. The regulator’s position was not supported either by the Cabinet of Ministers, the State Duma, or the law enforcement agencies. This was reported to the Lenta.ru publication by Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Financial Market Committee, and Andrei Lugovoy, the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption.

Source on the Lenta.ru website

What did the deputies say? According to Lugovoy, it is impossible to ban digital currency turnover in Russia, in this case, the market will move into an illegal zone. He added that if a complete ban is imposed, it should be justified “with concrete, clear and understandable figures and with an explanation of what we should do with people who have cryptocurrency in their hands.”

“Let those who want to ban it explain to us how they plan to do it from a practical point of view so that we do not act as a laughing stock for the whole world,” Lugovoy said.

How did events develop? On January 20, there was a media fuss about a ban on cryptocurrencies in Russia. The Bloomberg agency published the news, citing anonymous sources, that the Federal Security Service (FSB) convinced Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina to impose a total ban on cryptocurrencies in Russia.

At the same time, the Bank of Russia presented a report on cryptocurrencies, the main message of which is to ban mining and digital assets in the country, as well as to strengthen supervision of their turnover.

Later, Elizaveta Danilova, Director of the regulator’s Financial Stability Department, clarified that the Central Bank has no plans yet to impose a ban on the ownership of cryptocurrencies for citizens.

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