Russia’s Finance Ministry plans are widely criticized
The Monday interview of Alexei Moiseev, the Deputy Finance Minister of Russian Federation, has caused a stir in Russia. Different public figures made it clear that it is outrageous to hear such statements while everybody sees how other, much smaller countries see no danger in free altcoin markets.
In this interview, Moiseev noted that his organization is not going to simply let private actors trade with Bitcoin (other cryptocurrencies as well, it appears) and will control the whole Bitcoin market through the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) on the Moscow Exchange.
Since this statement, we have already seen the reaction of the leader of the work group on risk assessment of cryptocurrency circulation, Elina Sidorenko. She called this measure the Finance Ministry plans to take does not meet the modern realities at all. She added that after this measure some traders will undoubtedly move to foreign markets, hinting this is not beneficial for Russian economy.
Oleg Sukhov, a lawyer, told the Russian outlet Izvestiya that such regulations will harm the base concept of cryptocurrency. Once it is contained within the Moscow Exchange and its “corridors”, it will become just another kind of traditional asset, he insists.
Pavel Durov, the ex-CEO of VK.com (one of the most popular Russian social media websites) and the creator of the secure Telegram messenger, stated that the desire of Russian officials to restrict Bitcoin trade is not clear to him. He sees cryptocurrencies as a means to escape from the U.S. Dollar hegemony, Russia would be better off if it joined Japan and other Asian countries that liberalize cryptocurrency circulation. He jokes that it’s almost like Bitcoin sanctions Kremlin for something, so Russian officials don’t like it and hit back with restrictions.
We have yet to see what the government of Russia eventually decides; its foreign policy is known to be inconsistent, no reason to think they will undoubtedly choose this measure in the end.