Photo: Alexander Ryumin/TASS
The discussion on the need to ban cryptocurrencies in Russia, launched by the Central Bank a week ago, has made a 180-degree turn. The Central Bank issued a devastating “report for public discussion”, in contrast to it, the Ministry of Finance introduced a completely liberal concept of regulation to the government, and now RBC is already reporting that there is a “road map” at the government level — and it has already been signed by the relevant Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshenko .
Yes, and on Tuesday (apparently, as part of a public discussion), the president spoke on the crypto topic, hinting that Russia has natural competitive advantages in the field of mining, that is, a lot of cheap electricity.
With such a breakneck pace, our administrative machine does not work, even when it is necessary to ban something worse than cryptocurrencies.
And almost never — when it is proposed to allow something. That is, key documents were prepared in the government in advance, and the Central Bank, of course, knew about this. Therefore, perhaps, his report (and this is a document without administrative status) appeared first. But it was not possible to direct the public discussion in favor of the ban.
Why does the Central Bank take such a conservative position? After all, as it turned out, regulation is supported not only by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economics, but also by the quasi-powerful Rosfinmonitoring, and even the very powerhouse FSB.
In addition to the public arguments from the report already disassembled to atoms, there is also administrative logic. She is simple. If operations with cryptocurrency within the perimeter of the Russian financial system are prohibited, then the Central Bank will not have to regulate them. This will be a completely shadow sector, at the mercy of the security forces. If regulation is introduced, then the Central Bank inevitably becomes part of this mechanism, moreover, the main part.