Minister of Justice of Russia, Alexander Konovalov, has affirmed that he does not see the need to legally define cryptocurrencies just yet. According to him, cryptocurrencies might be considered another type of asset in terms of Russian legislation, he again urged legislators to avoid defining it at the current stage. The lack of clarity does not help the wider use of Digital Assets but Russia’s stance is understandable as if they start imposing too many restrictions and regulations this nascent industry will simply move out of Russia to more Crypto friendly jurisdictions.
An alternative view is that Russia will soon announce its own Digital Asset as more and more governments realize that a Cryptocurrency creates a digital footprint so enabling governments to be able to tackle the black economy have greater transparency and control compared to the current analog cash based structures.
