Shortly after lifting the country’s Telegram ban, Russian authorities began investigating potentially fraudulent offerings involving the company’s unlaunched token, Gram. The token was at one time meant to serve a new blockchain ecosystem known as the Telegram Open Network, or TON. Reports indicate that Russian prosecutors are set to investigate a British firm that allegedly sold fraudulent tokens related to Telegram’s terminated blockchain project. The news was reported on July 3 by the local news agency, Baza.io. According to the report, the action was brought to a local investigative committee by “several Russian entrepreneurs” that claimed to have purchased $11.7 …

A Russian hacker was sentenced to nine years in prison by a U.S. court on June 26. The hacker, Aleksei Burkov, was previously considered to be of personal interest by Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Exclusive cybercrime with premium $5k membership fee Burkov was accused of running a website called “Cardplanet” which sold payment card information: “Many of the card numbers offered for sale belonged to U.S. citizens. The stolen credit card data sold on Burkov’s site has resulted in over $20 million in fraudulent purchases made using U.S. credit card accounts.” Allegedly Burkov also ran an exclusive invite-only club for …

Russia’s upcoming e-voting on the Constitutional amendments will be implemented using blockchain technology. Moscow citizens will be able to cast their votes on Vladimir Putin’s Constitutional amendments online via blockchain-powered e-voting. As announced on the Moscow government’s official website, Moscow voters can sign up for the upcoming e-voting starting from June 5. Blockchain makes voting “almost impossible to hack” Scheduled to take place from June 25 to June 30, the e-voting will be implementing blockchain technology to “ensure security and transparency.” As officially announced, blockchain will help to anonymize and encrypt each vote to provide safety and immutability of data. …

Update: Changpeng Zhao’s comment was translated incorrectly in the article. It was since updated to reiterate the platform’s stance that individuals engaged in crime should not sign up with Binance. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most influential person in the blockchain industry. Cooperation with the Russian gov’t On Oct. 22, in an article on RBC News, Zhao, also known as CZ within the crypto community, pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most influential person in the blockchain space. Zhao further said that he believes the bill on regulating …

Crypto regulation is not a priority for the Russian government since cryptocurrencies have lost their popularity, the Russian prime minister has recently argued. Prime minister Dmitry Medvedev’s comments were reported by Russian news agency Fontanka on May 16. According to Medvedev, cryptocurrencies are not that interesting for the population anymore, which decreases the need for the adoption of crypto regulations. He said: “The popularity of cryptocurrencies has decreased so far, which likely makes the regulation issue not that relevant already.” Speaking at an annual international judicial forum on May 15, Medvedev noted that the problem was widely discussed at a …

An adviser to the President of Russia has proposed to adopt a digital currency in Crimea to attract investors and avoid sanctions, local news agency TASS reports April 19. Sergey Glazyev, advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin on regional economic integration, urged the government to adopt “digital money technologies” to reduce “cross-border barriers,” the official said at the Yalta International Economic Forum (YIEF). According to Glazyev, adoption of digital currencies will “sharply reduce cross-border barriers” and will attract foreign investors who “are afraid of sanctions,” which are “generally carried out through the banks.” The official reportedly elaborated that digital money …

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 …

Russia has been trying to pass cryptocurrency legislation since the beginning of January 2018, with no success as of yet. The government’s main bill, “On Digital Financial Assets,” which was expected to be passed by July 1 — according to the wishes of President Vladimir Putin — will instead most likely be pushed back until an October Duma session. According to Artem Tolkachev, the self-proclaimed “first” lawyer in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to begin working with Bitcoin (BTC) and blockchain startups, the reason the crypto bills didn’t make it on the July agenda was “because of the complexity …

Given the apparent sensitivity of cryptocurrency markets to regulatory and political developments, it stands to reason that the world's leaders — and what they think about crypto — will be vitally important in determining the direction the cryptocurrency market will travel in the future. Many leaders have been willing to sit back over the past few months and let crypto develop — more or less — organically, yet it's becoming apparent that the time for official action is drawing increasingly near, at which point Bitcoin, et al. will either bear the brunt of government 'crackdowns' or will benefit from favorable …

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued ambiguous, but mostly negative, commentary on the question of Russian issuing its own cryptocurrency during his annual live question and answer session with the Russian public today, June 7. On today’s live session with the president, known as the “Direct Line”, Russian blogger Artem Khokholikov asked the president three questions about cryptocurrency: “Will Russia have its own cryptocurrency? [...] Will it be controlled by the government? [...] Do you think that in the near future cryptocurrency will completely replace our regular, standard money?” Putin answered by first explaining that Russia cannot have its own cryptocurrency, …

A group of Russian deputies headed by Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, submitted a draft of federal law on cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) regulations to the State Duma, as reported in an official press release March 20. According to the press release, the documents “On Digital Financial Assets” and “On Alternative Methods of Fundraising (Crowdfunding)” were prepared in accordance with the recent instructions from president Vladimir Putin, stating that cryptocurrency regulations will become law by July 1, 2018. The bill “On Digital Financial Assets” was first introduced on Jan. 25 by the …

Russia’s first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov has repeated plans for the country to adopt its own cryptocurrency. Speaking to local news network RBC about the so-called ‘BitRuble,’ Shuvalov said the Russian security service the FSB was already considering potential security loopholes ahead of time. “I am a supporter of a cryptoruble coming into being,” he said. “Discussing Blockchain, we agreed we should act carefully - the government, central bank and the FSB.” In line with previous comments on the controlled nature of a future Blockchain-based currency, Shuvalov reiterated there should be no risk of “harm to the national economy.” …