Russia’s central bank has finally changed its mind on banning crypto activities altogether. According to Kirill Pronin, the head of the bank, recently said that it would probably legalize crypto mining based on certain conditions. It is very rare for Russia’s central bank to make such a public acknowledgement considering that it is heading up efforts to ban crypto use.
Mr. Pronin expressed his views while attending a forum on mining in St. Petersburg on June 29th, 2022. During a session exclusively on cryptocurrencies, he said that the central bank is not as opposed to mining and is still not convinced on legalizing general crypto use. He also named conditions that have led to possible discussions on the topic. According to him, assets mined in Russia must be sold overseas to get fiat currencies. The idea is to get the needed money and that crypto shouldn’t be accumulated by Russians in country. This would stop crypto use for making payments internally.
The battle for crypto mining and legalization is ongoing between the central bank and the Finance Ministry. Ivan Chebeskov, the head of the Finance Ministry strongly opposes Pronin’s stance. Mr. Chebeskov said that Russian miners will face quite a few challenges in selling their crypto overseas in the current situation.
A draft of the Mining in the Russian Federation law was seen as a line item in the country’s Parliament database in May 2022. In this version, mining operators are spared from the need to register to start operating. A one-year tax amnesty which had been previously proposed was done away wait. It is now a matter of time on whether crypto mining will be allowed in this part of the world.
