thecoinrise.com
A number of big names, including Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov and Telegram founder Pavel Durov, have criticized Russia’s recent crypto ban.
On January 20, Russia’s Central Bank released a report suggesting a blanket ban on crypto trading and mining within the country. The risks of cryptocurrency are “much higher for emerging markets, including Russia,” according to the study.
However, it appears that the proposed crypto ban is not widely supported across the country. According to a January 22 article by Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, the proposed crypto prohibition would “destroy a number of sectors of the high-tech economy.” He continued:
“Such a ban will inevitably slow down blockchain technologies development in general. These technologies improve the efficiency and security of many human activities, from finance to the arts.”
However, Durov acknowledged that “any financial authority’s desire to regulate the circulation of cryptocurrencies is natural,” he concluded that such a serious ban is “unlikely to stop unscrupulous players, but it will put an end to legal Russian projects” in this sector.
Crypto ban is “impossible”
Meanwhile, Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff, Volkov, wrote on Telegram on January 20 that the crypto ban would be “calling a spade a spade.”
Navalny, the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation and a Russian opposition leader (FBK), was poisoned with the nerve toxin Novichok in August 2020. He returned to Russia a year ago after recovering in Germany, where he was detained and has been imprisoned since.
“Technically, banning cryptocurrency is the same as banning person-to-person transfers (i.e., it’s impossible)… Yes, they can make it very difficult to deposit funds on crypto exchanges, which means that intermediary services will simply appear that will do this through foreign jurisdictions. Yes, transaction costs will rise. Well, that’s all, I guess.”
The biggest question, as TheCoinRise raised, is will Russia ban or legalize crypto in 2022.