The bill draft that will contain the regulatory framework for digital currencies in Russia, which was discussed in that country’s parliament, has been returned to the first reading stage due to requiring several modifications.
According to the Russian media Kommersant, the cryptocurrencies regulation bill “On Digital Financial Assets” which was presented by the State Duma committee for its second reading, was pushed back because of the numerous substantial and formal errors in it.
The decision made this Thursday is based on the fact that the legislative proposal is not related to cryptocurrencies or tokens, and that there are important problems regarding its writing and terminology.
Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the council and chairman of the State Duma Committee for State Construction, said that the document was returned because it requires “substantial changes.”
Krasheninnikov explained in regard of the project’s drafting, that the terms “cryptocurrencies and tokens” were replaced by “digital rights”, situation that does not clarify the relationship between “digital rights” and “digital financial assets”.
Similarly, he argued that regulation within this bill would conflict with Russian laws for corporations and rules on financial assets billing.
For her part, head of research and development at law firm Infralex, Olga Pleshanova, said that approving the proposal in its current form would represent the return of the Russian economy to the 90s and the creation of financial pyramid schemes.
The Bill
Last year Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the European country would have its own regulatory framework to legalize cryptocurrencies trading.
Therefore, at the end of 2017, the Russian Finance Ministry presented a draft called “Digital Assets Regulation Project” to the State Duma.
However, it was learned that the Russian Central Bank initially disagreed with the ICO legalization and the cryptocurrency trade, and that by March, the institutions agreed on it and there was even mentioned the possible creation of a Russian digital currency.
Later, Putin announced that the law would come into force on July 1st, but nothing happened. This new setback delayed further approval, something that will probably happen next year.
Russia and Cryptocurrencies
Russia has been very cautious when it comes to cryptocurrencies, keeping them and investors alike in some sort of gray area, since authorities in that country make contradictory comments to decide what is legal and what is not.
An example of this were the statements of the media and communication minister, Nikolai Nikiforov, about the possible launching of a “cryptoruble” during 2018 Q1.
Months later, the Russian president himself assured in an interview that Russia could not have its cryptocurrency and that no other country should have it, adding that the Russian Central Bank did not believe that cryptocurrencies should be a payment form because they were not backed up by anything.
Despite this, it seems that the European country wants to exert moderate regulatory action in regard to digital currencies and adopt them gradually, since they could generate a positive change for their financial ecosystem, just as has happened in other countries.
