The planned introduction of Russia’s cryptocurrency laws and regulations have been delayed again, due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Anatoly Aksakov, chairman at the Russian State Duma committee on financial markets, claims that the nation’s virtual currency law, the bill “On Digital Financial Assets,” has been finalized. However, he said that the bill won’t be passed and adopted until the end of the spring this year.

As mentioned in a report released on March 31, 2020, by local news outlet RBC, Aksakov has noted that previous delays in the crypto bill’s adoption were due to disagreements among Russian authorities regarding how the new asset class should be regulated.

Aksakov, the chairman of the National Banking Council at the nation’s reserve bank, said that Russian authorities don’t want to legalize virtual currencies, even though the State Duma had reportedly been supporting several crypto-related projects.

Russian’s highly-anticipated cryptocurrency bill has now been postponed, as the country begins to focus on combating the Coronavirus pandemic. All of Russia’s ongoing legislative processes have slowed down considerably, Aksakov confirmed.

The country’s proposed virtual currency bill has experienced several delays after being introduced back in January 2018.

Aksakov noted that the nation’s crypto law will not really affect the operations of domestic digital asset trading platforms.

He explained that Russia’s upcoming crypto bill will aim to define and classify cryptocurrencies, and it might prevent them from being officially accepted as a form of payment. The law will clarify how the issuance and circulation of digital currencies should be managed.

According to previous reports, sources had claimed that the nation’s reserve bank would be banning the issuance and circulation of private digital currencies.