Recently, a member of the State Duma Committee on Economic
Recently, a member of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, in the Russian Parliament, has given a statement to a local news media outlet, suggesting that the country can be expected to be through with the adoption of law about cryptocurrencies very soon, in the month of March this year. As February draws to a close, the statement from Oleg Nikolaev inspires hope that the Russian parliament will finally pass and adopt some of the numerous crypto-related draft bills it has been sitting on for a while now.
This top official noted that the crypto regulation that the public can expect to be adopted soon is being fine tuned at its final stages now. He also emphasized on how this law will help encourage the growth and spread of blockchain technology as well as cryptocurrencies within the country.
For the first time, an official also intimated the public about a new project that is on the cards as well. This ongoing project reportedly concerns the development of a new cryptocurrency. This new cryptocurrency is expected to be backed by oil (like Venezuela’s Petro crypto) and will be meant to enable ease of payments in Russia’s massive market for energy, especially oil.
This update does come with a certain sense of irony as not too long back, Russia had refused to work with Venezuela’s Petro crypto, an oil-backed cryptocurrency as well. In fact, it had offered aid to the hyperinflated economy of Venezuela provided Petro was not involved in the deal at all.
Nikolaev also suggested that the Russian parliament may be considering the possibility of making use of blockchain technology to handle the many barrels of oil that have to be transported, stored and managed.
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However, it seems that Russia is ready to tap into more than just the fuel industry with blockchain. It is also exploring alternative use cases, as per the words of, Igor Kostikov who formerly worked in the Federal Securities Commission of Russia. He stated:
“Perhaps the oil-backed cryptocurrency will be the pioneering project that will create a reliable structure for the cryptographic market as a whole.”
The latest developments are quite interesting as it means Russia will finally see concrete crypto regulations coming through, after a whole lot of delay.