Russia has long been interested in entering the crypto market on centralized rather than decentralized terms. This week it has reaffirmed its stance during a press-conference held by the chairman of Russia’s State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov. He told the Russian press that “I am positive that eventually a cryptocurrency will emerge. However, it will be a backed one. Once a certain amount of money is deposited into a certain bank, it issues a corresponding amount of crypto tools.” He added that this cryptocurrency will be backed by the Russian ruble 1:1.
Aksakov also commented on blockchain saying that the technology envisions the usage of crypto tools, including cryptocurrencies, which enable exchanging. “This is very promising,” concluded Aksakov.
Aksakov’s latest utterance is in line with previous initiatives of the Russian government and its general stance toward the crypto realm. Thus, in June the first deputy of the Federal Council economic policy committee, Sergey Kalashnikov made it clear that Russia is willing to allow cryptocurrency and blockchain but only if it has the final say. Shortly before that a representative of the Ministry of Finance, Alexei Moiseev, also said that Russia might introduce cryptocurrency on its exchange market.
Russia’s desire to adopt crypto and yet centralize it is visible to the naked eye. Thus, Aksakov, while being positive about a state-backed digital asset, is not at all enthusiastic about major coins like BTC is ETH. At the end of October, he stated that the terms BTC and mining had been removed from the Russian Law on Digital Financial Assets because of their baselessness. He also noted that these mainstream cryptocurrencies face a “miserable” future.
“Crypto popularity is slumping. And I believe that their future is numismatic and miserable. Most likely, they will be off the market,” stated Aksakov.
It should be noted that there is a high chance that Russia soon launches a certain digital asset. Whether it will be Cryptorouble, announced by the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain in early 2018, or another type of digital asset remains to be seen. Yet given that Russia is keen to adopt a cryptocurrency of its own in order
to circumvent the existing sanctions, the chances are indeed substantial. More so, since the presidential adviser Sergey Glazyev has recently
underscored that if the proposal gets the green light from the government Russia has the necessary programming means to issue the coin within a very short period of time.
