Public organization RosKomSvoboda, the commission on blockchain technologies and the digital economy under the public organization Investment Russia, and the law firm Digital Rights Center have launched a public campaign demanding that proposals hindering the circulation of cryptocurrencies and digital assets in Russia are not adopted.
In addition, the authors of the initiative in the petition to government bodies call for amendments to the On Digital Financial Assets law (“O DFA“) to align it with existing practices and the interests of the crypto industry.
Experts say that both the current and proposed regulations are underdeveloped legally and generate legal uncertainty, failing to reflect established global practice and the experience of regulating the crypto industry in other jurisdictions.
They also note that banning the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment “contradicts their nature and purpose as a means of settlement”.
The petition authors note that the proposed amendments impose unreasonably high penalties for violations related to the circulation of digital assets and digital currencies, and the threshold for mandatory disclosure of cryptocurrency operations and reporting is too low.
Experts also emphasise the complete lack of any privileges, including tax incentives, for crypto business.
According to RosKomSvoboda co-founder Sarkis Darbinyan, the law On DFA in its current form creates only obligations for market participants, not rights or benefits for them.
At the same time, the bills, “the adoption of which is not far off,” envisage completely inadequate administrative and criminal liability measures for users of digital currencies, he said:
“The crypto market is already feeling a clear imbalance, and if the bills are adopted in the form in which they were presented to us, this will further slow the innovative industry.”
Darbinyan noted that the state-developed approach to regulating digital currencies in recent times “clearly does not satisfy either the domestic professional crypto community, or the global crypto business, nor the ‘ordinary’ cryptocurrency users.”
The law On DFA defines digital currencies, which include cryptocurrencies, as property.
“Moreover, a highly controversial model of legal protection for property has been chosen, guaranteeing judicial protection to owners of digital currencies exclusively on the condition of their declaration, which directly violates the right to judicial protection guaranteed by the Constitution,” noted Darbinyan.
Partner at Digital Rights Center Mikhail Tretyak said the initiative aims to build a constructive dialogue with the state to jointly develop regulation that “will satisfy all links in the chain ‘state – citizens – business'”.
In February the State Duma approved in the first reading draft law on taxation of cryptocurrency transactions.
Media citing an FNS letter report that the document has not undergone significant changes by the second reading and provides for citizens to report their ownership of digital assets to the Federal Tax Service.
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