Russian President Adviser Urges Adoption of Crypto Assets in Crimea to Attract Investors

Cryptocurrency is becoming more widely adopted by countries around the world, though there are still many areas that have not created the right climate. In Crimea, an adviser to the Russian president has recently recommended adopting cryptocurrency, in hopes that it would bring new investors and avoid sanctions.

This information was reported by the local TASS news agency on April 19^th.

The advisor, Sergey Glazyev, specifically speaks with President Vladimir Putin regarding regional economic integration. Recently, he urged that the authorities should adopt “digital money technologies” in an effort to reduce “cross-border barriers” between themselves and other countries, based on statements at the Yalta International Economic Forum (YIEF).

By adopting digital currencies, Glazyev believes that the cross-border barriers will be reduced, and that more foreign investors will come in that fear the sanctions. These sanctions are after “carried out through the banks.” Stablecoins are named in the report as having the ability to “pass the border, and cannot be hampered by sanctions,” considering that they are pegged to physical assets.

One of the suggestions from Glazyev was to create their own “stable digital token” in Crimea, which would be tied to the cost per square meter in the region in order to support the construction of health resorts.

When Glazyev recently gave a speech, he was incredibly vocal about blockchain technology and his positive opinion of it. Last year, he noted that digital money is so unrestricted, making it exempt from unpredictable sanctions, thus creating political risk.

The Central Bank of Russia investigated the positive and negative impact of central bank digital currencies recently. One of the big concerns was regarding the lack of anonymity that users would have with these currencies.

At this point, there have been no actual regulations established for cryptocurrency in Russia with the State Duma, which is the parliament of the country. A bill titled “On Digital Financial Assets” was recently deferred by the State Duma, though President Putin established a deadline of July 1^st, 2019 to finally adopt regulations for the crypto industry.