Several crypto “news” outlets have gone ham with a story about the Russian government allegedly planning a massive purchase of bitcoin. Russia has made no official announcement to this effect. This reporter first came in contact with the story as it “broke” at The Daily Hodl, a site previously not known to this reporter as a source of fake news. This reporter does not speak Russian and has little clue how the Russian government works. One thing that was certain: there were no official Russian government sources making statements about Russia buying Bitcoin.

Russia to Use Bitcoin as a Hedge Against US Sanctions?

January 6th, economist Vladislav Ginko, who works at the state-funded Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, posted to Twitter that he believes Russia has no choice besides bitcoin as a hedge against economic losses taken as a result of the US sanctions against Russia.

https://twitter.com/martik/status/1082031829002129413

Back in mid-December, the Trump administration added several Russians to the list of sanctioned entities which US companies and persons cannot trade with. Ties with Russia have been strained since the US’s entry into the Syrian civil conflict.

The sanctions and listings undertaken today are one part of an aggressive stand against the irresponsible acts directed by the Government of the Russian Federation. Russian intelligence services’ cyber operations continue to seek to undermine democratic elections and delegitimize international organizations. Additionally, it is clear that Russian intelligence operatives used a military grade nerve agent to carry out an assassination attempt inside the borders of our closest ally, a violation of Russia’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The same day as the Daily Hodl report went out, a story it cited in Forbes read:

Although Russia is not a big exporter to the U.S., canceled energy and defense contracts in Europe coupled with bans on financing Russia’s key lenders have had an impact on the economy.

The Source Cites Himself

From there, Bitcoinist.com published a story based on the same sources. An Imgur user has created a convenient chart of how this fake news came to be:

As you can see with Vladislav Ginko’s latest tweets, he presently cites the articles based on his own tweets as evidence of his claims. All of the reports he tweets about link back to him as the source. Even well-known Telegraph.co.uk posted a story based on the dubious claims. The Telegraph even upgraded Ginko from an academic to a “Kremlin economist.”

Ginko also makes bizarre tweets like the following, where he claims convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff is the true Satoshi Nakamoto:

https://twitter.com/martik/status/1084177425414664194

He has retweeted articles citing him dozens of times. This is exactly how fake news takes root, via the Big Lie theory. Tell a lie big enough and the people will believe it. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

The following is an incomplete list of those who have run a story to the effect of Russia planning to buy $10 billion in Bitcoin:

Bitcoinist

The Telegraph

The Daily Hodl

Micky.com.au

TheBitcoinMag.com

ZeroHedge

I’m A Public Media Personality, You Can Trust Me

Ginko says he is a public personality in Russian media.

https://twitter.com/martik/status/1082322960734699520

Overall, the claim is sketchy. In a speculative sense, well-known eToro advisor Mati Greenspan seems to love the idea:

From everything I can see, Russia has every incentive to add bitcoin to their national reserves. The only thing holding them back is a legal framework to do so. https://t.co/1nVqidbHca — Mati Greenspan (tweets ≠ trading advice) (@MatiGreenspan) January 14, 2019

As previously noted, CCN.com has not gotten any official comment from Russian officials. The last we knew, Russia was still waffling on cryptocurrency regulations.

This was reported by CCN.com just 5 days before the new parties were added to the sanctions list. To date, the government has made no official pronouncement about acquiring a large amount of Bitcoin. In the event that Russia was to consider bitcoin use in an official capacity, they would not be the first. One of their trading partners, Iran, has previously expressed interest in cryptocurrencies as a way to thwart US sanctions.

It seems Ginko might be trying to fake it until Russia makes it so. All the same, fake news is fake news, and that’s all we find here in this “Russia buying $10 billion in Bitcoin” story.