Russian parliament representative: Holding Bitcoin is legal, but trading and mining may be fined

Russia’s Duma (parliament) deputies may have finally provided some clarity on cryptocurrencies, albeit unintentionally. While announcing possible fines for miners, the company said it was OK to hold Bitcoin.

Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, revealed the news in an interview at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Mining Bitcoin Could Be Fined

Aksakov told the media at the conference:

“Under Russian law, the unconditional use of cryptocurrencies will be considered illegal. This means that mining, organized production, circulation, creation of exchange points for these instruments will be prohibited.”

The penalty for such behavior would be a fine. But the proposal would apply only to public blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and not to the state-backed crypto ruble.

So far, Russia has been talking about bans and regulation almost every month. But then Aksakov said something even more interesting.

Holding Bitcoin is feasible

Despite the proposed ban on mining and other activities, he stressed that it is proposed to allow the holding of Bitcoin. That is, as long as Bitcoin is obtained in accordance with foreign laws at foreign points of sale and on the foreign exchange market, there is no problem. Obviously, any point of transaction in Russia is illegal, just like mining.

Additionally, Aksakov said he believes technologies such as the Lightning Network, which can increase transaction speeds, will reignite interest.

Elvira Nabiullina, the head of Russia’s central bank, would surely be upset. Last October, she said how “lucky” it was that the cryptocurrency craze had subsided.

The central bank governor also attended the economic forum last week, where she told parliament that she was against the legalization of cryptocurrencies. So, is the government's attitude really that different from that of the central bank?

Perhaps not. Nabiullina did say that the central bank is “opposed to cryptocurrencies as a legal means of payment.” Some argue that this would also fall under the category of circulation and would create transaction points, and therefore be an illegal act.

Despite the seemingly eternal delays in Russian cryptocurrency legislation, Aksakov claims that the bill will be passed by the end of the spring session in June. President Putin pushed that deadline back to February, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to get it done.

So, are the rules for cryptocurrency regulation in Russia becoming clearer? According to Aksakov, it seems to be clear already, and only specific laws need to be passed.

That is, if you launched a large-scale mining operation in Russia last year, this would be bad news.