Russia flips on crypto stance, once again!  

Russians have yet again baffled the world, this time with their stance on crypto. Over the past few months, crypto investors have seen Russian central bankers, politicians and authorities going back and forth on their stance on cryptocurrencies and they have yet again stumped us. 

A bill has been submitted in the Russian lower parliament chamber to prohibit the use of cryptocurrency as a payment method. 

The legislation was proposed on June 7 by Anatoliy Aksakov, the head of the Russian parliament's lower chamber's Financial Markets Committee. The bill forbids the use of digital assets for any financial transactions, including payment for goods or services. 

The cover note of the proposed bill read, “The ruble is the official monetary unit (currency) of the Russian Federation. The aforementioned article sets a prohibition against the introduction of other monetary units or monetary surrogates on the territory of the Russian Federation.” 

This new proposition has come just days after the Russian Central Bank allowed crypto payments for foreign transactions. 

Moreover, last month the Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov said that legalisation of crypto payments in Russia is not a matter of if but when. 

The minister said “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies being legalized in Russia for payments was just a matter of time and would happen “sooner or later” 

Russia’s back and forth on cryptocurrencies is not new. At the beginning of this year, Russia's central bank advocated for a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrencies, urging lawmakers to pass legislation making cryptocurrency trading, mining, and use illegal in Russia. 

The central bank claimed that cryptos are extremely volatile and are used to fund illegal operations all around the world.  

In reaction to this, Ivan Chebeskov, the director of the Russian Ministry of Finance's financial policy department, stated that cryptocurrencies should not be banned in the Russian Federation. 

He reasoned that prohibiting it would cause the country to fall behind other nations in the global tech sector. Instead, he added, Russia should take steps to better regulate them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin then intervened, and urged both parties to iron out their differences and reach an agreement on the issue. Putin mentioned Russia's advantageous position in cryptocurrency mining during a video conference with his government's ministers. 

After Putin’s intervention, Russian central bankers, politicians, and authorities have tossed back and forth several times on this issue but to no avail. No consensus has yet been achieved and the road ahead also seems murky. 

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