Russia’s latest crypto ban has been criticised by a number of prominent figures, including Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, and Telegram creator Pavel Durov.
On January 20, Russia’s Central Bank issued a report advocating a total ban on domestic cryptocurrency trade and mining. According to the research, the risks of cryptocurrency are “far larger for emerging countries, including Russia.”
This planned prohibition, however, does not appear to be uniformly approved throughout the former Soviet Union. According to a Jan. 22 article by Telegram creator Pavel Durov, the planned crypto prohibition would “destroy a lot of sectors of the high-tech economy.”
While Durov acknowledged that “any financial authority’s desire to restrict the circulation of cryptocurrencies is legitimate,” he concluded that “such a prohibition is unlikely to halt dishonest players, but it would put an end to lawful Russian ventures in this sector.”
