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Russian financial officials have started developing a mechanism to make it easier to use cryptocurrency for international settlements in the face of sanctions. A draft law that will regulate cross-border crypto transfers has already been approved by the country’s central bank and finance ministry.
Russian regulators have been hard at work to legalize the use of crypto in foreign trade. Authorities plan to regulate the issuance, circulation, and other operations of digital currencies, such as their use in international payments, by 2022. This task will be jointly undertaken by the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Russia, and the Rosfinmonitoring agency, according to Bitcoin.com.
“The activities of organizations that will carry out exchange operations with digital currency, its transfer and storage, and providers of virtual asset services should be subject to regulation, including registration or licensing of such persons and their supervision,” Rosfinmonitoring said. The agency added that combating money laundering is also part of their responsibilities.
The bill “On Digital Currency,” which was originally proposed by the Finance Ministry earlier this year and revised to accommodate the input from other authorities, provides the framework for the development of domestic infrastructure for crypto. Russian regulators are now turning their focus on the creation of a settlement mechanism for the use of crypto in foreign trade.
Alexey Moiseev, Deputy Minister of Finance, announced last week that his office and the Bank of Russia had reached an in-principle agreement on new legislation that authorizes international cryptocurrency payments. Early in September, the two institutions arrived at the conclusion that, in the face of escalating sanctions, Russia “can't do without cross-border crypto payments.”
“Now we have a bill already agreed with the central bank,” Moiseev said. “It generally describes how to acquire cryptocurrency, what can be done with it, and how it can or cannot be used, in the first place in cross-border settlements.”
