The Russian Deputy Finance Minister told reporters on Tuesday that the authorities decided not to introduce cryptocurrency regulation for now, due to lack of consensus. This followed a day after the head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets stated that a draft bill on the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin would be ready in October.
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Suspending Crypto Regulatory Plans
Following the National Council for Financial Stability meeting, headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev reportedly said on Tuesday that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will not be recognized in Russia. “Bitcoin settlements in Russia will not be legalized,” Tass wrote. Ria Novosti elaborated:
The authorities decided not to introduce regulation of cryptocurrency, but to concentrate on legalizing the technology “blockchain”.
The deputy minister noted how cryptocurrency regulations vary from country to country with no single trend, from a complete ban to “allowing bitcoin to move along with the national currency,” the publication quoted him explaining. He added that this topic will be discussed at the next meeting of the International Council on Financial Stability on October 6.
“Maybe after that, we’ll grow wiser and think of something, but unless we want to make mistakes at first, we decided to look around and think about how best to do it,” he said.
At the National Council for Financial Stability meeting, officials could not come to a unanimous decision regarding the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) and the Central Bank promise to further develop their policy on cryptocurrencies next year.
No October Deadline; Discussions Continue
Just one day prior to Moiseyev’s announcement, the head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov, reportedly said that the draft bill to regulate cryptocurrencies would be ready in October.
In an interview with Tass on Monday, he was quoted saying, “when will the bill be ready? I think it will have been prepared in October, and then we will discuss it before adopting (into law),” the publication wrote. Aksakov also said that he has been working in partnership with the Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance to develop a draft law to regulate cryptocurrencies.
Following Moiseyev’s announcement, Aksakov then told Tass on Tuesday that discussions will continue in the State Duma on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. “I think that within the framework of these discussions, we will decide what we will do with this,” the publication quoted him saying:
In any case, the market is there, the market is developing rapidly, and there are certain advantages that could be used, I mean the advantages associated with attracting investments for projects through ICOs. I have a positive attitude to this, but there is another point, in order to make a decision, consensus will be necessary.
Early this month, the Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the finance ministry is drafting a law to regulate cryptocurrencies, which is expected to be ready by the end of the year. However, the central bank has repeatedly spoken against classifying cryptocurrencies as money substitutes, “because this is actually a loss of control over the money flows from abroad,” according to the head of the central bank, Elvira Nabiullina.
This is not the first time Russia has delayed the bill to regulate cryptocurrencies. In August, Russian lawmakers announced that this bill was delayed, due to the lack of consensus on the classification of digital currencies.
What do you think the Russian government delaying the regulation of cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, The Moscow Times, and Bloomberg.
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