Page 23 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine September 2024

bne September 2024 Companies & Markets I 23
Russia legalises crypto mining, payments
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As Western sanctions against Russian financial institutions continue to tighten, Moscow has taken significant steps to legalise crypto, which could potentially help it circumvent the sanctions.
The State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament, has adopted a bill on the regulation of cryptocurrencies in
the country. The adopted law indicates a much more lenient approach to crypto, compared with a previous draft, which stipulated a total ban on crypto in Russia.
However, while generally legalising crypto mining and foreign crypto payments, the Russian government is tightening its control over the crypto segment.
Crypto for foreign trade
The State Duma has adopted in the second and third readings a law which will allow foreign trade settlements and exchange trading in cryptocurrency as of September 1.
In accordance with the adopted law, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) receives the authority to carry out settlements in cryptocurrency. Initially foreign payments in crypto would be conducted on an "experimental" basis, but the scope of the experiment could be expanded.
The CBR is yet to come up with a procedure for admitting crypto for trading, as well as to determine requirements for companies that would be able to settle foreign payments in crypto.
After September 1, the CBR will be able to create a platform for digital currency transactions on the basis of the national payment system.
Senior CBR officials, who previously were rather sceptical about crypto, have lately spoken in favour of using "unconventional" methods of international payments. Vladimir Chistyukhin, CBR's first deputy chairman, was recently quoted by the Russian business daily RBC as saying
The State Duma has adopted in the second and third readings a law which will allow foreign trade settlements and exchange trading in cryptocurrency as of September 1. / bne IntelliNews
that if new foreign payments are not developed in the situation of sanctions, Russia's export-oriented economy may be "doomed."
"What used to seemed to us as unpopular – such as swaps, clearing systems or the use of crypto – all must be tested, all must be tried and as soon as possible," he was quoted as saying.
Crypto payments within BRICS?
Experts agreed that crypto could be a promising options for Russia's foreign trade.
"Since the introduction of large-scale economic sanctions against Russia, the prospects for this new type of economic transaction have increased," Yuri Brisov, a partner at the law
“What used to seemed to us as unpopular – such as swaps, clearing systems or the use of crypto – all must be tested, all must be tried and as soon as possible”
firm Digital & Analogue Partners, was quoted as saying by the Russian business daily Kommersant. "Russia has been technically disconnected from SWIFT, so international transactions have become limited, and cryptocurrency, due to its universal scale and unrestricted nature, makes it possible to solve this problem."
According to Brisov, payments in crypto could be promising with countries, such as Hong Kong or the United Arab Emirates, which didn't impose sanctions on Russia and where crypto payments are legal.
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