Till now, the Bank of Russia was an anti-crypto institute, allegedly thinking of the crypto sector as a rival to the nation’s own legal currency— The ruble. Regardless, according to recent sources, the geo-political scenario has turned in such a way that the central bank of Russia has even given a statement stating that cross-border payments in the form of crypto-assets are now inescapable.
The central bank of Russia has made an ally with the Finance Ministry to authorize cryptocurrency-based, cross-border transactions, according to the latest report provided by TASS.
Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev has passed this declaration and had claimed that keeping the present conditions in mind, “It is impossible to do without cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency.”
The Deputy Finance Minister also highlighted during a program hosted by the channel called Russia-24 that the Central Bank was revising the proposition regarding the management of crypto-assets, by stating: “As for the regulation of the cryptocurrency market, the difference in approaches remained. But I can say that the Central Bank has also rethought [the approach] taking into account the fact that the situation has changed, and we are rethinking because the infrastructure we plan to build is too rigid to use.”
This far, the Russian authorities and the Central Bank of Russia have been very cautious of digital assets as payment options, and keeping this in focus the government, in 2020, sanctioned a Digital Financial Assets law, which prohibited the utilization of digital assets for example Bitcoin, for transactions.
Regardless, with the beginning of war in Ukraine, and the accompanying sanctions on Russia by several Western nations, it seems that Moscow has now become used to the notion of making digital funds acceptable for cross-border businesses, claiming that these cryptos are a “safe alternative,” provided the fact that these can be very difficult to trace or to avoid.
Russian Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, although, made an addition to the utilization of cryptocurrencies, i.e., just a statement of caution by mentioning that digital assets could be permitted for global payments, only if that does not impact the internal financial framework.