Russia Not Ready for Bitcoin as Legal Tender, Putin’s Spokesman Peskov Says

Russia has no reason to recognize bitcoin, President Putin’s press secretary has noted after El Salvador became the first country to adopt the digital coin as legal tender. In a statement to the press, Dmitry Peskov revealed he is convinced that such a move would not bring any benefits to the Russian Federation.

The government in Moscow sees no reason to recognize bitcoin at this point, according to Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Describing it as a quasi-currency, the Kremlin representative insisted that equating bitcoin to official monetary instruments wouldn’t do anything but harm Russia’s financial and economic system. Speaking to reporters, Peskov emphasized:

Clearly, Russia is not ready for such steps.

The statement, quoted by RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday, came as the Republic of El Salvador became the world’s first country to recognize bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender for payments in its jurisdiction. On Sept. 7, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law came into effect, making the leading crypto by market cap a national currency alongside the U.S. dollar, as Bitcoin.com News reported.

Residents of the small Central American nation can now pay for goods and services using the cryptocurrency as all prices can be denominated in BTC. Furthermore, taxpayers can use bitcoin to cover their obligations to the state. On Monday, President Nayib Bukele revealed his government had also started purchasing BTC, later announcing that the country had acquired 200 coins, bringing the total it holds to 400, and then “buying the dip” with another 150 coins when the price fell to below $43,000.

Russia, on the other hand, is a long way from accepting any cryptocurrency as legal tender. Moscow partially regulated coins and tokens with the new law “On Digital Financial Assets” which entered into force at the beginning of this year. Its provisions recognize cryptocurrencies as property but prohibit their use for payments.

According to the country’s current legislation, the national fiat ruble remains the only legal tender, and “money surrogates” are banned in the Russian Federation. Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank which has categorically opposed the adoption of decentralized digital money, is preparing to launch a digital ruble prototype by the end of 2021.

Russian media reported in May, however, that members of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, had started working on amendments to the Civil Code that would permit the use of crypto assets as contractual means of payment. If approved, the changes will allow parties to a contract to pay each other with cryptocurrency, only under the terms of their agreement.

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