Lawmakers to Resubmit Russia’s Crypto Mining Bill – Anton Gorelkin, the deputy chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Information Policy, has stated that a proposal to legalize cryptocurrency mining, which was initially presented to the State Duma in November, will be reintroduced to the lower house of the Russian parliament after further discussions.
Gorelkin, who is a co-sponsor of the bill, acknowledged that the process of reviewing the regulations is challenging, stating that it will be delayed. He expressed his optimism that the legislation could be enacted in some form this year, as reported by the cryptocurrency news source Forklog. For more than a year, Russian lawmakers and officials have been contemplating how to regulate operations related to cryptocurrencies.
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The proposed legislation seeks to acknowledge mining as a legitimate business activity and mandate that individuals and entities involved in such activities report their income to tax authorities. As per the draft provisions, miners will be permitted to sell their coins on foreign platforms or on platforms operating under special legal regimes in Russia.
Although there is an interest in using cryptocurrencies for international settlements due to sanctions, most government institutions in Moscow remain against allowing crypto payments within the country. Should the legislation be approved in its present form, it will prohibit the advertising or promotion of cryptocurrency assets to a broad audience.
The adoption of the law was already delayed once in December, with the initial intention of voting on the legislation by the end of 2022. In addition to being a profitable business, the mining of cryptocurrencies has become a popular source of income for many ordinary Russians, particularly in regions where electricity rates are low and subsidized.
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However, this practice of home mining has been blamed for power outages and fires, leading to a proposal to prohibit it in residential areas. Last week, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Financial Market Committee at the Duma, disclosed that lawmakers are drafting another bill that would hold “gray miners” accountable for stealing electricity to mine cryptocurrencies or for illegally connecting their hardware to the power grid. Aksakov, a high-ranking deputy, informed RBC Crypto that both laws should be passed simultaneously in the first half of this year.
