Russia weighs allowing crypto for international payments amid Western sanctions
Allowing crypto for international payments will help Russia bypass Western sanctions
• Allowing crypto for international payments will help Russia bypass Western sanctions
• Although discussions have been ongoing for months, no consensus has yet been reached
Russia is considering allowing cryptocurrency for international payments amid Western sanctions against the country prompted by an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
The news was reported by Reuters on Friday, citing Moscow-based news agency Interfax.
“The idea of using digital currencies in transactions for international settlements is being actively discussed,” Ivan Chebeskov, head of the finance ministry’s financial policy department, Interfax quoted.
Reuters report said Russia’s Finance Ministry is considering adding the proposal on international payments to an updated version of a crypto law which is still in draft, citing a local newspaper Vedomosti.
Earlier this month, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Denis Manturov, said the nation would legalize crypto payments “sooner or later,” local media outlet TASS reported.
When questioned at the New Horizon educational forum on whether legalized crypto payments were in the works, Manturov said, “I think so. The question is when this will happen, how it will happen and how it will be regulated. Now both the Central Bank and the government are actively engaged in this. But everyone is inclined to understand that this is a trend of the time, and sooner or later, in one format or another, it will be carried out.”
“But, once again, it must be legal, correct, in accordance with the rules that will be formulated,” he added.
Although discussions have been ongoing for months, as Russian officials are wrestling with how to regulate the country’s crypto market, no consensus has yet been reached.
Allowing crypto as a means of payment settlement method for international trade would help Moscow counter the impact of economic sanctions, which has seen Russia’s access to traditional cross-border payment mechanisms “limited,” Chebeskov said.
Picture Credit: Bitcoin News
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