If Andrey Khaprov succeeds in his bid, Russians will soon be forced to report any crypto transactions exceeding 600,000 Russian rubles (roughly $9,000). Andrey is the country’s head of Main Directorate for Drug Trafficking.
As it turns out, Andrey has already put in a request with the Russian parliament to make it mandatory for crypto users to report the transactions as well as grant the Russian law enforcement agencies to register and monitor the users.
Apparently, Andrey made his move to send in the request through the Ministry of Finance after going through draft legislation on crypto governance that’s still pending approval by the Russian parliament.
The “Digital Financial Assets” legislation defines the legal provisions in protection of digital assets but terms, in explicit definition, the Ruble as the only recognized legal tender in Russia.
Under the new legislation, crypto users in Russia would be required to carry out all their transactions through licensed operators with strict compliance with AML/KYC protocols, a process that’s aimed at combating criminal activities like terrorist financing and money laundering. But Andrey wants to add something to it.
Andrey proposes a further amendment to the legislation to include a clear limit on how much cryptos can be transferred without raising eye-brows. As such, the amount would be capped at 600,000 Russian Rubles or $9,000 worth of cryptocurrencies, above which the user would be legally obligated to report the transaction to the authorities for scrutiny.
To make his case, Andrey told the Ministry of Finance that the main risk of allowing crypto usage without monitoring is that they can be cashed out into fiat currency and used in criminal activities. The Ministry in question has since endorsed his proposal.
However, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development didn’t seem to welcome the proposal. The minister, Savva Shipov, has spoken out against Andrey’s proposal, saying that it’s still too early to target crypto-related activities for prosecution.
The minister said that any discussions about monitoring cryptocurrencies should occur after the bill is debated and rules spelled out against criminal use of cryptos. Such rules would be established in the bill’s second reading in parliament.
