Russian Officials, Crypto Investments, and Legal Aspects

Russian Federation has a huge potential when it comes to cryptocurrencies, but there are certain challenges as well. Interestingly, Russia became the latest country to officially require its government officials to report their cryptocurrency holdings. It is worth noting that President Vladimir Putin signed a decree. Let’s have a look at this document. According to this decree, Russian officials must disclose their crypto investments by June 30, 2021. 

Importantly, the decree stipulates new measures related to the country’s federal law on “On Digital and Financial Assets” or DFA. The decrease was released on Thursday. 

People should take into account that the form requires officials to disclose data like the name of the digital asset. Moreover, officials should provide the date of acquisition, the total amount of held assets, and information about the issues of an asset like the country of registration. It is worth noting that declarations must include information about cryptocurrency as well as tokens belonging to officials, their spouses, as well as children under the age of 18. 

According to the information taken from the decree, the disclosure process starts on January 1, 2021. 

Crypto ecosystem in the country

Interestingly, some local crypto players believe that the new regulatory initiative will have a positive impact on the Russian crypto ecosystem. This initiative shows that not only ordinary citizens but Russian officials will have to comply with the regulations. 

As a reminder, major cryptocurrency advocates in Russia are against the government’s stringent approach to regulating the crypto industry. Importantly, the committee on Blockchain Technologies and Cryptocurrencies has called the government to soften regulations that could create problems for the crypto industry. 

Interestingly, the committee included important crypto players such as executives from major crypto exchanges like Binance and OKEx . Importantly, the committee sent their feedback to the Ministry of Finance about a new bill on the taxation of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. 

It is worth noting that the lobbyists proposed several measures. For example, revoking criminal liability for crypto tax reporting failures. They want to reduce administrative fines for violations related to cryptocurrency transactions. 

Authorities should keep in mind that, the adoption of the country’s crypto-related regulations in their current state could lead to a wave of capital outflow from Russia to jurisdictions with more crypto-friendly regulations. Russian authorities should work with the committee as well as other interested parties to develop the crypto industry. This way it will be easier to reach this goal.