Dmitry Peskov, acting press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Friday that Russia has no reason to recognize Bitcoin, according to RIA Novosti news agency.
In response to questions that followed the enactment of El Salvador’s law making bitcoin legal, Peskov said the country was “not ready for such steps.”
In his statement to the press, Peskov said he was not convinced that the adoption of bitcoin would bring any benefits to the Russian Federation.
He added that Bitcoin is a “quasi-currency” and said he believed equating it to official monetary instruments would do nothing but damage the country’s domestic financial system.
However, the Russian head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market is not quick to completely rule out bitcoin.
Antoly Aksakov is seeking regulatory clarification on Bitcoin, and defines mining as a type of entrepreneurship according to a local news outlet.
On Wednesday, Aksakov commented on the state of Bitcoin mining in Russia:
“Since this is a type of commercial activity, it is clearly necessary to enter it into the register, and assign it a code that corresponds to it as a type of entrepreneurial and taxing activity,” he said.
Aksakov stated that changes to Russia’s digital currency laws “must definitely be expected.”
He also explained the common confusion between bank-managed digital currencies and cryptocurrencies. Note that he did not specify the difference between Bitcoin and all of its central counterfeits, which is another sign that Russia is far from understanding Bitcoin, let alone adopting it or keeping it in reserve.
“It is necessary to clearly define the boundaries of these concepts so that there is no confusion,” said the head of the State Duma committee.
In addition, Aksakov stated: “We still need to discuss the fact that digital currency is in fact now, although we call it a currency, it is used as a financial instrument, as a financial asset, an object of investment, rather than a means of payment.”
Bitcoin is currently defined as property in Russia but its use for payments is prohibited.
According to Aksakov, the “encrypted” digital ruble must also be registered by the Central Bank, its issuance should be regulated and determined by the commission. The digital ruble will be a central digital currency that relies on the government, rather than a global consensus and market competition, to validate and issue new tokens.