Lawyer: foreign exchanges will not dare to work with users from the Russian Federation due to "blurred" regulation

03.06.2020

Karolina Salinger

The main problem of the presented Russianbill on digital currencies —lack of clear terminology. Mikhail Uspensky, a member of the Skolkovo expert group that worked on amendments to the document, and a partner at Taxology Russia, stated this live on ForkLog.

One of the most controversial terms in the bill is «objects of Russian information infrastructure» (ARI), he believes.

According to the document, ARII refers to domain names and network addresses located in the Russian domain zone, software and hardware complexes and information systems located in the Russian Federation.

The expert is confident that the concept needs to be shortened and specified, since in the current version the definition includes «anything».

According to him, the definitions of the draft law on digital currencies need to be brought into line “at least with the bill «On digital financial assets» (DFA).

The expert emphasized the inconsistency of the twodocuments. For example, the issuance of digital financial assets on Russian blockchains and the issuance of cryptocurrencies are defined and regulated differently, “although technically these are the same things,” Uspensky noted.

The vagueness of terms may discourage buying cryptocurrencies on foreign exchanges, as platforms are likely to be reluctant to take unnecessary legal risks, he said.

The lawyer criticized the clause providing legal protection to cryptocurrency owners subject to declaration of assets, calling it a “gift from the legislator to citizens”:

«We provide legal protection for what?It turns out that in Russia the circulation of cryptocurrencies is de facto prohibited, and if you do nothing — What can you be protected from? Sue a foreign exchange under Russian law? This is an impractical idea».

He also noted that there are already precedents for judicial protection of cryptocurrency owners in the Russian Federation without the adoption of this bill.

Like other experts, Ouspensky stressed that this provision is contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

«Do not confuse declaration as registration for the sake of judicial protection with the mechanism for paying taxes on cryptocurrencies», —he stated.

Uspensky believes that the bill «ODFA» will be accepted in its current form, and the document «On Digital Currency» it may still change. In particular, the amendments will most likely affect the clause prohibiting the dissemination of information about the issue and circulation of cryptocurrencies.

In general, the legislation should offer market participants and the state some kind of compromise, the expert said:

“The world will come to national digital currencies. How do we convince people to use the digital ruble if we don't have early adoption? "

Recall that at the end of May, the Ministry of Economic Developmentsent several documents on the regulation of digital currencies in Russia. They provide for the introduction of administrative and criminal liability for violation of the rules for working with cryptocurrencies.