Russia Would Allow Crypto as Payment for Foreign Trade

Russia is accelerating its efforts to get digital assets up and running. It continues to push ahead with its crypto regulation plans. The Ministry of Finance amended its draft bill to include an article that would allow paying with cryptocurrencies in foreign trade.

Russia has been redoubling its efforts to integrate digital currencies as soon as possible following the implementation of a comprehensive sanctions package.

With crypto legalization in Russia coming closer, the country’s Ministry of Finance amended the proposed bill. It added a very interesting article, which would allow using cryptocurrency as payment for foreign trade activities of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. The amendment is in accordance with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Digital Finance, the Federal Tax Service, and the country’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring.

Even though Russia ruled out making crypto legal tender, passing such a measure would indeed establish cryptocurrencies as a de facto alternative currency to pay with for foreign trade. After the United States and its allies started curtailing Russia’s access to dollars as much as possible, it could certainly be viewed as an attempt to undermine such efforts.

Bank of Russia Advances Digital Ruble And Crypto Legalization

The Bank of Russia is notably absent from the list of “crypto supporters” in Russia. The central bank’s governor Elvira Nabiullina has been a long-standing opponent of crypto legalization, although she has been grudgingly accepting the recent change of course.

According to Forbes Russia, the central bank now brought forward the launch of its digital ruble pilot project. First scheduled to go ahead in 2024, the new launch date is now April 2023. Testing has already been underway since February 2022. Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia, said that payments would be free and available to Russians in all regions. The bank would also use smart contracts in executing its CBDC project.

As a result, stakeholders in the country’s financial public sector are pushing in different directions, although both have pushed for digitization of the financial sector. Since Russia’s primary goal is to mitigate the impact as much as possible, we can certainly expect more news on this front soon.