A TV show was released by local media outlet where Russian president Vladimir Putin has expressed his thoughts regarding cryptocurrencies and the technology behind it. Putin claimed that there is no national currency planned to introduce at this point as regulations are yet to come and cryptocurrencies are border-less meaning that research still needs to happen, according to the Russian President. For the very same reason, Russia has to keep up with the rest of the world by following these innovative technologies closely to make sure to ‘avoid various limitations in global finance trade’. He was referring to the global sanctions that were measured against Russia in the recent years, which could be eased up with the help of blockchain technology in the future.

Meanwhile, he added that cryptocurrencies are not recognized as a legal tender within Russia as regulations are not ready just yet. However, the president has issued mandates within last year for his officials asking for a comprehensive legislation both for digital assets and for mining as well. The latter became essential as many miners migrated to Russia, due to the cheap electricity costs that some parts of the country offer.

The legislators have already introduced three bills regarding cryptos and the blockchain technology behind it. Two of them passed already, namely the “On the digital financial assets” and the other “On the digital rights”. These bills are responsible for integrating basic blockchain terminology into the Russian legal language, which is quite important as the words ‘token’ or ‘blockchain’ are hardly understandable for the majority of the population. The bills also assign the Bank of Russia to oversee and control crypto trading and initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the country.

The last bill, “On the distributed national mining” – which presented the idea of introducing a cryptoruble as national digital currency has been rejected by the legislators and by the president himself.