The president of the Finance Committee considers Libra Coin is a threat to the country’s economy
In just two weeks, Russia will have a formal regulation, already revised and corrected, related to the use of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Recently, the draft of a bill was modified for not having basic terms such as “cryptocurrency”.
The adoption of the cryptocurrency legislation was postponed in that country because the international Financial Action Task Force for Money Laundering (FATF) requested to check the terminology part, as reported by the Russian news agency TASS, which has the Government support.
For that reason, and with the aim to don’t generate doubts about any process, the Russian Parliament, known as the State Duma, will approve a bill called “Digital Financial Assets” (DFA), according to local finance officials. This news was also announced by TASS.
It is necessary to remember that the authority of that country approved a legislation that separates initial coin offering (which will be part of the Russian law for collective financing or “crowdfunding”) and the DFA law, according to the Deputy Minister of Finance from Russia, Alexei Moiseev.
The official also revealed that the State Duma is considering the DFA law and that this bill is expected to be adopted and made known in the next two weeks. In this way, Russia will have two bills related to the world of cryptocurrencies.
In past weeks, the Government of Russia decided to conduct some tests in four regions of the country (Moscow, Kaluga Oblast, Perm Krai and Kaliningrad) to know how blockchain technology could be adopted, another of the areas that, until now, lacks of regulation, but that would also be regulated in the coming weeks.
The expectation of cryptocurrencies users in this country grows these days, while waiting for the regulation that will clarify the use of cryptocurrencies and how this can be done.
So far, the Russian government shows more openness towards blockchain technology than towards the use of cryptocurrencies. In fact, this year the possibility of creating its own cryptocurrency was postponed until a clear regulation is established and before any type of operation is started.
Russia Will Not Legalize Facebook’s Cryptocurrency
As reported by local media, the Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly, Anatoly Aksakov, declared that the country will not legalize Libra Coin, the cryptocurrency of the social network Facebook, which would be in the market by 2020.
The official believes that the use of this cryptoactive would represent a “threat” to the country’s financial system and said Russia still has no plans to adopt legislation “that offers space for the active use of crypto-monetary tools created in open platforms”.
This position contradicts a little with the opinion of Moiseev, but in the coming days it is possible to take new decisions in the same line. However, it seems that a door could be opened for those who wish to acquire these cryptocurrencies under foreign legislation, a fact that would be responsibility of the user who decides to do it.
By María Rodríguez
