Russia’s Investigation Chief Wants to Criminalize Bitcoin

Russia’s Investigation Chief Wants to Criminalize Bitcoin

The Russian Head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has an issue with the information age. In fact, the Investigation Chief would like the ways of the Old Soviet Union to take hold of his country again. Bastrykin also has a problem with cryptocurrencies and would criminalize the use of the virtual money if he had his way. In an....


Related News

Abkhazia Plans to Criminalize Crypto Mining as Energy Crisis Deepens— Extends...

Crypto mining in Abkhazia is still a hot potato for the de facto state government, which is now determined to criminalize such activities. Continuous massive power disruptions, in parallel, are fueling the anger of the people towards crypto miners. Public Officials to Face Bigger Penalties According to a report published by E Daily, the Abkhazian government revealed that it’s due to present a proposal to fine miners and also file criminal charges against them. The plan is to set fines up to $8,000, which is a considerable amount of money, as it is the same yearly average income per....

Law Enforcement in Russia’s Samara Region Investigates 8 Cases of Fraud Relat...

The investigation into the Russia-based crypto pyramid Finiko is growing with law enforcement officials in Samara region announcing they have launched eight criminal cases against Finiko associates. Authorities are also working to identify more victims of the Ponzi scheme, Russia’s largest in recent years. Finiko Members Under Investigation in Samara, Russia The Russian Ministry of Interior’s Main Department in Samara Oblast, a region bordering Tatarstan, is investigating eight cases of fraud against Finiko associates. The members of the Ponzi scheme are accused of....

Russia Blacklists Another Bitcoin Website, but BitNovosti Finds Workaround

Despite the recent court ruling that overturned a previous decision to block access to at least five Bitcoin websites, Russia’s supervision agency has blacklisted one of the country’s most popular Bitcoin-related websites. On May 27, Russia’s Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications (Roskomnadzor) effectively blocked access to one of Russia’s most popular Bitcoin news websites, BitNovosti.com. When attempting to access the domain within the country, users are instead met with the following message from the authorities: “This site has been blocked by order....

Russia Planning to Criminalize Bitcoin Activities

The debate whether Bitcoin should be banned in Russia is once again picking momentum. According to a report of Interfax, the Russian government lately approached the regulators with its plan to criminalize the use and issuance of Bitcoin under the new money surrogate law. If enacted, the amended bill will effectively impose ban on all kind of Bitcoin activities, including trading, mining and transactions. A similar bill was proposed by the Ministry of Finance in 2014. However, the text of the bill turned out to be confusing for regulators, for it never clarified the actual definition of....

Russian Legislature to Review Updated Bitcoin-Ban Seeking Bill in February

A draft bill submitted to Russia’s legislative assembly, the Duma, is updated to a new draft edition that may be reviewed as early as February. The updated draft is likely to exclude harsh punishments such as imprisonment for trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a punishment previously suggested by the Russian Finance Ministry. The legislative initiative – originally forwarded in December – was initially seen as the first step to definitively criminalize cryptocurrency dealings and ban the use of bitcoin and other digital currencies. The draft bill came in the aftermath of the....