Russian President Putin Orders Government to Adopt Crypto Regulation by July 2019

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued another deadline for the government to adopt regulations for the digital assets industry, according to instructions for the Federal Assembly. The document was published on the official website of the President of Russia, Kremlin.ru, on Feb. 27.

According to the document, Pres. Putin has ordered the government to enforce crypto-related regulation by July 1, 2019. The President has required the Council of the Federation of Russia and the lower house the Federal Assembly of Russia (Russian State Duma) to adopt the regulation during the spring session of 2019.

Specifically, the document requires the adoption of federal legislation that aims to develop the digital economy, including regulation of civil-law digital settlements. The legislation should also include a regulatory framework for digital financial assets, as well as attract greater financial resources based on digital technologies, the document says.

The recent instruction by the Pres. Putin echoes his previous statement in 2018, when he ordered the government to set up regulations for the trade of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crypto mining by July 2018.

The Russian parliament passed crypto legislation in its first reading in May 2018, however, in autumn, all crypto- and token-related terms had been eventually replaced with the term “digital rights,” while the definition of crypto mining had also been cut out from the bill. As such, Russia’s crypto regulation bill was sent back to the first reading stage in December 2018.

Recently, Russian financial outlet Rambler reported that the Russian State Duma plans to review and adopt new cryptocurrency regulations in March.

Previously, the Russian Minister of Justice argued that the ministry does not see the need to legally define the concept of cryptocurrency, since cryptocurrencies cannot be used as a payment method in the country.