Libra Won’t Allow You To Buy Goods And Services In Russia

Yesterday, 1st July, the deputy finance minister in Russia said that the nation wouldn’t be introducing separate new regulations to deal with Facebook’s upcoming stablecoin Libra. 

According to a new report by local Russian sources, Alexey Moiseev has said that Libra would be treated just like any other cryptocurrency. He simply said, “no one is going to ban it.”

He then went on to explain that Russia will treat digital assets like cryptocurrencies in a similar way to how it deals with foreign currencies. For example, it will be legal to buy and sell them but not use them to pay for goods and services.

“The ruble is our national currency, and all calculations must be made in it.”

The deputy finance minister expects the bill on Digital Financial Assets to be adopted by Russia’s parliament, the State Duma in the second reading within two weeks.

On 18th June, news sources reported that Moiseev said this on the bill:

“We had a meeting last week, Anton Germanovich (Siluanov, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance. - RNS) held it, and Vice-Premier Akimov, the Central Bank, we, law enforcement agencies attended. In general, we have agreed, now the final text, everyone is watching it ... All decisions have been made there, now we are looking at the text, and within two weeks, I hope, we will come out for adoption in the second reading.”

Moiseev went onto highlighted that the problem with the taxation of activities involving cryptocurrency wasn’t talked about at the meeting but did add that “'ordinary human activity, it should be regulated like everything else.”

On the 21st June, Interfax reported that the bill was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading on 22nd May last year and that the head of the Duma Financial Market Committee, Anataoly Aksakov had said that “according to FATF recommendations, Russia should adopt a bill on the circulation of cryptocurrency before the end of 2019."

At a recent press conference, Moiseev also commented on initial coin offerings (ICOs):

“A large number of businesses ask when it will finally be possible to legally conduct an ICO transparently, this will definitely be regulated, permitted, and that's all.”