September 1, 2024
✨✨The Russian Parliament adopted two bills related to cryptocurrencies on Tuesday, July 30: the first legalizes "mining" and the second authorizes, under certain conditions, payments to foreign companies in the form of cryptoassets.
👉After officially banning bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in domestic exchanges since 2020, Russian deputies adopted a bill on Tuesday that will allow companies to use cryptocurrencies in international trade.
Circumventing Western sanctions has become a major challenge for the Russian economy. Payment delays due to sanctions led to an 8% drop in Russian imports in the second quarter of 2024, according to the Russian Central Bank.
Mining, i.e. the creation of cryptoassets, and payments in cryptocurrencies have until now been in a gray area of Russian law and were largely tolerated, despite a superficial ban on using these assets to pay for goods and services.
In January 2022, the FSB (internal security service) and the Russian central bank had said they wanted a comprehensive ban on cryptoassets, citing respectively the risks of financial instability and use by “foreign agents” – including the opposition press.