Russia may be about to adopt a new set of federal laws relating to cryptocurrencies. What’s more, it seems as if this decision has been taken at a top level – with a recent document reportedly showing that the cryptocurrency order has been approved by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.



Russian government to work with State Duma



Recent reports specify that the Kremlin published a list of 47 orders this Wednesday. The various orders have all reportedly been greenlit by Putin, meaning that they are one step closer to being enacted.



However, the order with the most interest to cryptocurrency advocates will no doubt be one pertaining to cryptocurrencies.



Specifically, the order is said to instruct the Russian government to work with the nation’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, to implement ”federal laws aimed at the development of the digital economy.”



Furthermore, these are said to include ”determining the procedure for conducting civil law transactions in electronic form, as well as regulating digital financial assets and attracting financial resources using digital technologies.”



In addition to this, the order also comes with a deadline listed as July 1, 2019. Moreover, the responsible officers are Russian Prime Minister and ex-President, Dmitry Medvedev, as well as the State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin.



It would seem this comes as a measure to end the legal limbo in which cryptocurrencies have existed for the past year. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this is not the first time that the Russian government has been ordered to develop cryptocurrency regulations.



Russia began examining cryptocurrency regulations last year



Specifically, Putin issued an order last year urging the government to ”ensure that changes are made to the legislation of the Russian Federation” to decide the legal definition of digital technologies such as cryptocurrencies, tokens, and smart contracts.



Although three separate bills relating to cryptocurrency regulation were filed last year, Russian lawmakers could not decide on an appropriate legal framework.



However, the Russian news outlet Rambler recently reported that the three bills will be revisited by the State Duma this March. In fact, Oleg Nikolayev, a member of the State Duma’s Committee on Economic Policy, is said to have noted that discussions are in their ”final stages”.



Moreover, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev spoke on the issue of cryptocurrencies this January, noting that there does not serve any purpose burying the matter of cryptocurrencies.



Rather, he argued that they need to be examined and better understood, stating that they can hold both potential and potential peril.



”As with any social phenomenon, any economic institute, there are both bright sides and dark sides.”



