The Russian parliament has received a bill that would impose monetary fines on those who erroneously issue or exchange digital currency. The legislation was proposed by the author of another bill that would have prohibited using them as a form of payment.
A bill that was recently submitted to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, would impose heavy fines on individuals and organizations that issued digital financial assets (DFAs), the term used to define cryptocurrencies in Russia, illegally.
If the legislation is passed, businesses that operate exchanges or investment platforms but are not registered with the state will be subject to penalties, according to a report from the document published on Thursday by the cryptocurrency news site Forklog.
According to the report, the fines range from 5,000 Russian rubles (about $90) for individuals and 30,000 rubles (about $550) for officials to between 700,000 and 1,000,000 rubles (more than $18,000) for legal entities. Businesses that disregard the rules governing digital rights (tokens) could be penalized similarly, up to 700,000 rubles (almost $13,000).
Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the parliamentary Financial Market Committee, is the sponsor of the proposed law. The senior deputy has contributed to ongoing efforts to adopt a thorough legal framework for Russia’s cryptocurrency industry. The law “On Digital Financial Assets,” which took effect in January 2021, only partially regulates the sector at the moment.
Aksakov is also the author of another cryptocurrency-related bill that was filed earlier this month and seeks to outlaw DFA payments in Russia. The ruble should continue to be the only legal tender in the nation, despite the fact that institutions in Moscow are still debating numerous future regulations for cryptocurrencies.
At the same time, an idea to allow crypto payments in small business transactions abroad, in the face of mounting financial sanctions, has gained support, even from the Central Bank of Russia which has consistently opposed the legalization of bitcoin and the like as a means of payment.
Another draft law, the bill “On Digital Currency,” which was proposed by the Ministry of Finance in February and has undergone multiple revisions since then, is supposed to regulate these matters. Delayed by ongoing discussions on its provisions, it is expected to be reviewed by Russian lawmakers during the fall session of the Duma.