Russian lawmakers introduced a series of bills regulating digital assets earlier this month, which would effectively ban any transaction that uses cryptocurrency within the country's borders. In response, the crypto community presented several protest letters.
The reaction of the crypto community
If the proposed regulation is approved, the Russian economy could lose up to $ 10 billion in taxes a year that the cryptocurrency industry would otherwise be able to pay if it could operate legally, says a letter from the crypto group RAKIB addressed to the sponsor of the utilities, Anatoly Aksakov.
A copy of the letter was also sent to Maxim Reshetnikov, head of the Ministry of Economic Development.The letter from RAKIB states that one of the introduced rules prohibits the issuance of cryptocurrencies using servers located in Russia and registered web domains in the country, which means that local cryptocurrency activities will have to migrate to other jurisdictions.
In addition, Russia will miss the opportunity to maintain technological leadership and to "build a new iron curtain" within the global technological infrastructure. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a defense body of companies from various sectors in Russia, sent its own letter to parliament.
The letter points out that the ban on any economic activity with cryptography contradicts Russia's policy on the digitization of the economy, which was announced by President Vladimir Putin in 2017.
In addition, the suggested regulation "contradicts the main international rules for regulating digital assets," says the letter. The Duma expert council for the digital economy and blockchain, in turn, sent a letter to Putin's consultant for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs, Boris Titov.
- Investors they warned that the new regulation would endanger the constitutional rights of the Russians and result in abuse of power by law enforcement agencies.
A move to speed up the legislative process of the rules against the crypto sector
Another of the clashing arguments over the bill is that the cryptocurrency ban was introduced in parliament as an addition to a previous digital securities bill, which has already gone through a first hearing in the Duma.
This means that the proposal will go directly to a second hearing, speeding up the legislative process. If lawmakers agree with the feedback provided by the Russian crypto community, they will have to postpone the entire legislative package to the first hearing, said Elina Sidorenko, head of the Cryptocurrency Turnover Estimated Risk Working Group in the Duma.
In this case, the new regulation would not be taken into consideration before autumn because the Duma is about to suspend its activities for the summer break. Another government official, Dmitry Marinichev, the president's adviser for protecting the rights of entrepreneurs on the Internet, believes that the plan should simply be rejected.
"The state shouldn't be afraid of the future and ban innovation, it should be ready to change and help people feel comfortable in the new digital world," he wrote on his Facebook page.
