Russia crypto prohibition criticized by tech and political executives

• On January 20, Central Bank of Russia issued a report advocating a total ban on domestic cryptocurrency trade and mining. 

• Russia’s latest crypto prohibition has been criticized by a number of leading people, including Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov and Telegram creator Pavel Durov.

Nonetheless, it appears that the planned prohibition is not uniformly accepted throughout the country. According to a Jan. 22 post by Telegram creator Pavel Durov, the planned crypto ban would “destroy a number of sectors of the high-tech economic system.”  According to the research, the risk of cryptocurrency is “far larger for emerging countries, including Russia.”

Cryptocurrency ban is calling a spade a spade: Leonid Volkov

Meanwhile, Volkov, Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff, stated on Telegram on January 20 that the ban would be like “calling a spade a spade.”

– Advertisement –

Navalny is a Russian opposition politician and the founder of The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). He was poisoned with the nerve drug Novichok in August 2020. Following his recovery in Germany, he returned to Russia in January 2021, where he was arrested and has been since.

Volkov used a Bloomberg story from January 20 in his announcement. It stated that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had a role in promoting the prohibition because cryptocurrency may be used to fund “non-systemic opposition and extremist organizations.”

He went on to claim that he was “sure that the Bloomberg version, in this case, is 100 percent accurate to the fact,” but that “nothing will happen” since Russians prefer to use cryptocurrencies to buy drugs rather than donate them to the Moscow-based non-profit FBK.

While Durov acknowledged that “any financial authority’s desire to restrict the circulation of cryptocurrencies is fair,” he concluded that “such a prohibition is unlikely to stop dishonest players, but it would put an end to lawful Russian activities in this sector.”

ALSO READ – LAMBO NFT DROP HAS LEFT INVESTORS BERSERK

Cryptocurrency popularity in Russia

Many of Russia’s neighbors have also taken a strong position on cryptocurrency. On January 19, individuals in nearby Georgia were forced to make an oath to stop mining cryptocurrency. Kosovo and Kazakhstan have lately been added to the list of nations that have banned cryptocurrency mining.

Ukraine, Russia’s neighbor, maybe an exception, having passed a series of measures to promote the country’s acceptance of cryptocurrencies in September 2021.