According to a senior MP, Russia’s State Duma will debate a crypto regulatory bill by the Ministry of Finance at the start of the year in the coming weeks.
Konstantin Bakharev, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, explained that the issue of crypto regulation could no longer be postponed – despite the fact that the Central Bank continues to oppose anything short of a total ban on cryptocurrency in Russia.
The head of the committee said that the bill will be put on the table before the end of the spring session.
The current (spring) session concludes on July 31, and lawmakers are still returning after a two-week break that started in early May.
Meanwhile, Bakharev said that the central bank and the government (which has the support of the majority of senior MPs on the issue) are still in disagreement.
The bank has joined a cross-ministerial and public-private sector working group on crypto regulation, but it remains opposed to the bill, which wants to “legalise” cryptocurrency ownership and trade. The law also specifies the tax processes that crypto dealers must follow, attempts to control crypto exchanges, and, probably most critically, attempts to regulate the crypto mining business.
