The chairman of the Russian Congressional finance committee, Anatoly Aksakov, said the country is moving to greenlight international trade in cryptocurrency next month, according to a report by the national news agency TASS.
“In January, we want to legalize cryptocurrencies to ensure foreign trade activities,” said Aksakov, according to the translated version of the report.
The chairman stated that although Russia is taking steps to allow bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments for imports, there are no plans to encourage the use of assets that develop within the country’s territorial borders.
“The circulation of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment on the territory of Russia will be prohibited, and responsibility will be given in this regard,” he said. “But to pay for foreign trade transactions, we still consider the possibility of using cryptocurrencies, for example, for parallel imports.”
Russian officials have been teasing this possibility for almost a year, following a tough package of Western sanctions imposed following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is drawing up a roadmap for bitcoin regulation by January 2022, and the Ministry of Finance will submit a proposal the following month. At the same time, US President Biden announced the first Russian sanctions, blocking the five largest Russian banks and freezing all assets held in America. A month later, Russia said it was open to selling natural gas for bitcoin.
“There can be different currencies, and it’s a standard practice. If they want bitcoin, we will trade in bitcoin,” said the chairman of the energy committee of the country’s Congress, Pavel Zavalny, in a press conference at the time.
Soon, the idea gained traction and various regions of the Russian government began to support it. In April, the country’s tax authorities proposed changes to the local cryptocurrency bill to allow entities to accept cryptocurrency as payment in foreign trade. In May, the matter was “actively discussed” in Russia.
The Bank of Russia, which is the most difficult government body to convince due to previous calls for a complete ban on bitcoin and cryptocurrency, first nodded to the possibility of allowing bitcoin payments for international settlements in June. In September, the Russian central bank agreed with the Ministry of Finance that it would be “impossible to do without cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency.”
Now, as the year draws to a close, the legal basis for allowing such payments will become a reality, according to a TASS report.