Media: FSB proposed to ban the use of cryptocurrencies as payment in the Russian Federation

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has proposed banning the issuance and use of digital currencies inas a means of payment in Russia. This was reported by Baza with reference to a letter from Dmitry Chernyshenko, Deputy Prime Minister for Digital Economy and Innovation, to President Vladimir Putin.

The ban was also supported by the central bank, Baza added.

“A decision was made following a meeting in the government to establish a ban on the issuance and use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment,”quotes the publication Chernyshenko.

In addition, the FSB allegedly proposed to makechanges to the bill «On digital financial assets». The agency wants to allow the exchange of digital assets only through specialized operators, and oblige the latter to identify the owners of cryptocurrencies.

For violation of the law on digital assets, the FSB also wants to introduce administrative and criminal liability, writes Baza.

To make final changes to the bill, a clear position of the Central Bank is needed, which has not yet responded to the FSB’s proposals.

«The Central Bank is a financial mega-regulator, and as he said, so it will be, because he has to work with it», —Elina Sidorenko, a specialist in legal issues of cryptocurrency circulation and blockchain, told Baza.

Experts emphasized that the ban was expected.

«It is unlikely that anyone seriously expected thatBitcoins can be used to pay in Russia. The Central Bank would not allow this under any circumstances. The news is rather that the process is underway, the status of cryptocurrencies will be determined one way or another, which means we will get at least some kind of understandable regulated market. We can only hope that this will be a market, and not shackles, where everything is prohibited, and for any violation you become a criminal», —Dmitry Zakharov, CEO of Moscow Digital School, said in a comment to ForkLog.

Last year, the Bank of Russia, together with Rosfinmonitoring, prepared a bill banning the use of cryptocurrencies as payment.

Experts do not consider such an initiative expedient, and also believe that it will not in any way affect the “gray market” that it is aimed at combating.