Ministry of Economic Development criticized the bill banning bitcoin in the Russian Federation

06/10/2020

Karolina Salinger

Ministry of EconomicDevelopment of the Russian Federation sent a letter to the State Duma in which it criticized the new package of bills regulating digital currencies and assets.

According to Kommersant, inThe ministry believes that a complete ban on the issuance and circulation of cryptocurrencies and the introduction of criminal and administrative liability will lead to losses for the entire Russian economy.

The Ministry of Economic Development notes that if the bill is passed, the authorities will not be able to protect the rights of users of digital currencies.

The ministry proposed changing the conceptdocuments that are actually prohibitive, creating «mechanisms for the controlled circulation of cryptocurrencies». Among them — determination of requirements for operators of their production and circulation and legalization of their activities with state control mechanisms.

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on FinanceAnatoly Aksakov said that he welcomes criticism from the Ministry of Economic Development. He added that the Central Bank of the Russian Federation supports the bills “with some changes”, and the Ministry of Finance has not yet provided comments.

«At the moment, consider thisthe bill is not taken seriously, since the authors of this initiative are required to receive official feedback from the government and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation before introducing the bill. Instead, the authors of the initiative, for unknown reasons, are requesting a position from the Minister of Economic Development», — noted the executive secretary of the AUR Commission on new technologies and legal support for the digitalization of society Dmitry Lipin.

Recall a new cryptocurrency regulatory packageBills involves a ban on the issuance and organization of circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia, as well as the introduction of administrative and criminal liability for violation of the rules for working with them.