Crypto Payments Are Acceptable in Foreign Trade, Russia’s Financial Watchdog Says – According to Yury Chikhanchin, director of the regulatory body, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation, better known as Rosfinmonitoring, fully accepts the use of cryptocurrencies for payments to foreign partners.
Chikhanchin stressed that it is against the law to utilize digital assets to make payments inside of Russia during his speech to the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament. The country’s current legal framework prohibits “money surrogates.”
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However, Chikhanchin noted that under some circumstances, such payments might very well be utilized in international trade. This, according to the high-ranking official, can help firms who are focused on exporting Russian products.
He remarked, as reported by the cryptocurrency news site Bits.media:
“This is quite acceptable if the supply chain is controlled.”
Yury Chikhanchin also stressed the need for Russian businesses to be aware of whom they are specifically exchanging the digital currencies in order to benefit from cryptocurrency payments.
The regulator disclosed that his office has created and already made available a unique information system for monitoring cryptocurrency transactions. It has already been utilized in some cases and enables financial authorities to identify both the sender and the recipient of funds.
The concept of cryptocurrencies’ future in Russia is still up for discussion. After the law “On Digital Financial Assets” only partially regulated the cryptocurrency industry, a new bill “On Digital Currency” is anticipated to create more thorough regulations for crypto transactions.
As Western sanctions against Russia for its military intervention in Ukraine have become more severe, the concept of using cryptocurrencies in international transactions is gaining support. At the same time, the majority of Moscow’s official institutions concur that the ruble should continue to be the only form of legal money in the country.
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The lower house of the Russian parliament recently passed a law outlawing domestic payments made with digital financial assets, despite the Bank of Russia, a vocal opponent of the free circulation of cryptocurrencies, recently signaling it might support the legalization of crypto payments that don’t enter Russia’s financial system.
