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Following the publication of the Central Bank’s proposal, the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, commented on its consequences. On January 22nd, Durov stated that he believes that the proposed ban would “destroy a number of sectors of the high-tech economy.”
He continued by saying that cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies are essential to the efficiency of many human activities, from arts to finance. According to Durov, the ban would inevitably slow down the development of blockchain and stifle high-tech innovation.
Durov concluded by saying that the financial authorities’ desire to regulate cryptocurrencies is natural, but that the proposed ban is detrimental to the economy at large. He expects that the ban will put a permanent stop to any legal projects that would otherwise develop in Russia, doing little to stop bad actors from misusing crypto.
Leonid Volkov, the chief of staff for Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny, also published a Telegram post on January 20th regarding the ban. Volkov was concerned that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) played an instrumental role in advancing the ban, due to its concerns that digital currencies could be used to finance extremist organizations. However, he added that attempting to ban crypto would be akin to restricting person-to-person financial transfers, an obvious impossibility.