PRESS: Econ ministry slams bill banning cryptocurrencies

MOSCOW, Jun 10 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has criticized a bill seeking to ban cryptocurrencies in the country as it sees the possibility of creating mechanisms to supervise virtual money turnover, business daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday.

A ministry official said the suggested regulation aims to fully ban issuance and circulation in Russia of the existing types of cryptocurrencies and criminalize activities of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs involved in issuance or circulation of cryptocurrency assets, the daily reported.

The ministry also thinks that the cross-border work of the existing cryptocurrency systems, in case of adoption of the bill, will make it impossible to protect rights of users of digital currencies and will squeeze out all operations with them beyond the country, which will result in losses for the Russian economy.

After lengthy discussions, the bill on digital financial assets was approved in the first out of three mandatory readings by the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, in 2018. The central bank has repeatedly spoken against cryptocurrencies.

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