Russia plans to legalise cryptocurrencies next year, according to sources in the State Duma, with the main aim of mitigating the impact of Western sanctions.
“In international payments, (cryptocurrency) can be used well,” Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma’s economic affairs committee, said today, according to Kommersant.
This is a legal safeguard for their use to ensure “parallel import“. Parallel import is the term used by the Russian authorities to describe the import of goods without the express permission of the manufacturers.
To date, the use of cryptocurrencies is prohibited in Russia. For years, the central bank has remained very skeptical of their use.
In September, however, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin showed a change of attitude. The relevant authorities will agree on a unified position by the end of the year, he announced.
Western sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine prohibit the import of many products into Russia. Apart from military hardware, the sanctions mainly concern high-tech products and components for the electronics industry, such as semiconductors, as well as machinery and equipment.
Russia is trying to obtain some of these products from other countries that have not imposed sanctions.
To remind our readers that Russia stopped charging VAT on crypto a few months ago.
