TL;DR Breakdown
- Lawmakers in Russia to make new legislation to legalize crypto confiscation if acquired illegally.
- Russian crypto experts says seizing crypto assets impossible in Russia.
- When Russia legalizes crypto confiscation, more crypto laws would be needed.
Lawmakers in Russia are set to be working on a new legislation to legalize crypto confiscation.
This is as Russia’s prosecutor general, Igor Krasnov, stated that fresh crypto regulations are needed to combat corruption because digital assets make crime and corruption easier for its players.
Krasnov stated that the government is now developing an amended crypto criminal code for authorities to seize crypto obtained from illegal activity.
On Wednesday at a conference of prosecutors, he said that private cryptocurrencies like BTC have been used continuously to commit crimes like bribery. He said they also have to legitimize crypto confiscation because it is a tool for laundering embezzled budget funds.
Krasnov describes cryptos criminal tendencies as a severe challenge to Russia.
The prosecutor, however, revealed that “On Digital Financial Assets” (DFA) law which the country adopted in the past, plays a crucial role in tackling crypto crime issues.
But new criminal code amendments are necessary to add additional protection, Krasnov insists.
Crypto confiscation cannot work in Russia – Industry experts
Contrary to the opinion of Krasnov, local crypto experts in Russia have said that no amount of legislation would make it possible for the government to seize crypto assets.
Nikita Soshnikov, a former lawyer with Deloitte, said that digital assets kept in wallets would be impossible to confiscate like any other type of asset.
Soshnikov said that Russia started developing proposals for confiscating crypto back in 2019, years before the DFA law was adopted. “The Prosecutor General’s Office remains the key stakeholder of this project, and in such context, the current statement is a mere confirmation of agreed plans,” he added.
Away from talks of legalizing crypto confiscation, lawmakers in Russia passed a bill to approve crypto legal status in July 2020 and simply put a clause that it is illegal to use digital assets as a means of payment.
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