So far, so good.
Authorities in Russia say they do not see any threats—yet—from the use of digital currencies in the country, Russian news agency TASS.
For years, authorities in Russia, particularly the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federations, have been very vocal in opposing digital currency in the country. In fact, ministry officials has been working on a draft law that will punish those who use bitcoins and engage cryptocurrency trade and mining activities.
That bill, however, has met strong opposition even before reaching the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament. In May, the Ministry of Justice challenged the bill’s lack of a precise definition for money substitutes or ‘surrogates,’ which is the term that Russian officials often use to describe bitcoin.
Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev, however, admitted several months ago that they were altering the legislation since imposing a blanket ban on cryptocurrency “is probably not worth implementing,” given the fast-paced development of technology.
Recently, Moiseyev said they are keeping close watch on the developments in the digital currency sector.
“So far we decided just to watch carefully how it is developing. We decided that the Central Bank and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service should monitor cryptocurrency for Russia’s economic security. So far these agencies believe that there is nothing critical in it. That means they understand that they (threats) may appear in the future, but now they do not exist,” the finance minister told reporters.
The Russian government published in December a document that defined the bitcoin and other forms of digital currencies as foreign currencies, and since trading operations involving digital currencies are to be treated as foreign currency transactions, this means that transfers will not be subjected to financial reporting.
Current bitcoin price
The price of bitcoin climbed to $812 early Friday morning.
