Russia ready to launch first blockchain projects

According to rumours, Russia could issue the first digital financial assets based on blockchain by the end of this year.

Russia is working on new protocols developed on blockchain

A Russian Duma parliamentarian said in recent days that Russia could soon launch its first digital financial products based on blockchain. Anatoly Aksakov, who heads the Financial Markets Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, said that three issuing platforms would already be registered in the country.

The Russian MP spoke about this project related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies during the Moscow Academic Economic Forum. Aksakov specified that this initiative was already planned after the adoption of the “Digital Financial Assets” law, which came into force in January 2021. 

The three already-registered platforms, as explained by the Russian MP, would be developed by a subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, Transmashholding, and Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank. Two more platforms are expected to be approved soon.

This news seems to confirm that in Russia, which is facing harsh sanctions imposed by the international community due to the invasion of Ukraine, the attitude towards cryptocurrencies seems to have changed. 

According to some, most recently ECB President Christine Lagarde, cryptocurrencies could also be a tool to help circumvent or mitigate sanctions.

In late March, Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Evgeny Grabchak proposed that the country should make cryptocurrency mining legal, which would give the country a competitive advantage over other countries. 

New platforms and digital assets

As far as the first digital assets are concerned, which should be issued in the country by the end of the year, Aksakov explained how this step could help the country out of a difficult economic situation, worsened by the depreciation of the rouble.

Indeed, he explained that:

“This is, to a certain extent, an alternative to those financial settlements that today exist on the basis of the dollar or the euro or other currencies”.

Furthermore, the Russian deputy also wanted to reiterate that the government supports the legalization of the market for digital assets, through strict regulation, and has prepared a new bill to achieve this goal. On the other hand, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin himself recently stated that cryptocurrencies would have a right to exist and that they will certainly have a future. 

However, there is still an opposing view on the free circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country from the Central Bank, which is significantly accelerating the project of a new digital rouble expected in 2023.