Russian ministries and financial authorities have held a meeting where they disavowed the idea to impose legal punishment for operations with cryptocurrency.

During the meeting, representatives of the General Prosecutor Office and Ministry of Justice stated that introduction of penalties for bitcoin usage does not have sufficient basis. Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Russia and Central Office of the Government agreed with the statement, reported Russian news agency Interfax citing a source close to Russian financial authorities.

Following the meeting, the draft law on surrogate money will be returned to the Ministry of Finance for revision. The bill is to be presented to the government in the second half of August. As a result of the discussion, the authorities agreed to monitor the use of cryptocurrencies and conduct further analysis of the risks of using bitcoin for criminal purposes. They plan to make further amendments to the draft bill on the basis of newly collected data, if necessary.

The question of banning cryptocurrency has been a matter of discussion in Russia over the past two years. In August 2014, the Ministry of Finance developed a document that called for the introduction of fines up to $15,000 for the production and usage of bitcoin. Later, the amount of the fine was reduced. However, in September 2015, the Ministry started to actively advocate the introduction of a criminal penalty for circulation of virtual currency including bitcoins. They suggested punishing individuals by imprisonment for up to four years, and senior management of involved financial organisations for up to seven years.

Lena Gabdullina