Bitcoin Forum

I don't discuss about geopolitical issues or war here. Let's consider about what is going on and will happen with (against) Russia.

They under the dictatorship of Putin, really invaded Ukraine and ignored all international standards. They are punished by massive sanctions on their bank system and many areas. Because we do know Bitcoin is peer-to-peer, borderless so will Russia do something like North of Korea, trying to use Bitcoin as one of their last resorts?

With Bitcoin, they can avoid traditional sanctions against them. To do this, will they legalize Bitcoin in Russia soon?

Let me say, I hate war!

I would not hold my breath for this.

Russia's traditional customers - Germany and Italy - have blocked the decision of getting Russia out of SWIFT. So they'll keep pumping fiat there in exchange for gas.
Russia's new laws may be on halt for now while the focus is on the war.

So again, I would not be so sure this will happen too soon. And really, I'm not sure I am looking for Bitcoin get the blessing of the terrorist of the year.

Russia has many options that can be used to avoid sanctions. Using any payment method other than the dollar would be appropriate, and then we would find that local currencies or exchanges for oil/food would be more effective than the dollar.

Bitcoin may be an option, but I do not see that there is anything special about Bitcoin that will make the government adopt it.

The effect will be for individuals to buy Bitcoin, changes will happen, especially if governments decide to impose restrictions on deposit withdrawals or at least the currency depreciation.

I completely agree with you. As much as it would have seemed like a much anticipated news, its of the least importance at the moment with the looming war in the atmosphere. Threats that have come off these nations of recent and the attacks that have been demonstrated already gives no room for any other business aside from finding amends and in the same time, being defensive of your country.

You can imagine Ukraine, planning to issue weapons to untrained civilians that decides to fight for there country in a bid to match Russian forces. I am sorry but, bitcoin remains out of the picture until it all quites down.

There are conflicting reports as whether Russia will go on bitcoin to circumvent the sanctions, one school of thoughts say yes, but on the other side, the argument is that since bitcoin is not really accepted they why would they go full blast on BTC.

Anyway, the price of bitcoin has increased and we've recovered what we have lost from the news. So maybe Russia has started to invest or at least hedge their wealth on bitcoin.

This begs the question, is Bitcoin the new natural resource of Russia? For many Russian investors, the answer is no. Well, it's still quite early to say but there are some people who actually like Bitcoin and they say that it's their way of protecting their wealth and to diversify their assets away from traditional means, and I think that's pretty good advice for many of us out there.

I've been watching news about Russia vs. Ukraine lately, whether it's the speech of the president of Russia or Ukraine, but for now there hasn't been a word from any side talking about crypto/Bitcoin.

According to my understanding, Bitcoin/crypto is illegal or legal, a country at war, I don't think this is the right time and discussion for a country at war, many things to think about, the safety and security of the people, weapons, strategies, logistics and many others that must be thought about by a country at war, Bitcoin legal, backstory, maybe if any member of parliament proposes bitcoin legal, the country is at war, I dare say that member, guaranteed to be shot on the spot.

I agree with your point, as they're accounting for 17% of the world's natural gas and 12% of its oil if they go for other local currencies in exchange there might be a chance to avoid sanctions.


But I don't think Bitcoin would be an option because as they're dealing in a huge scale they'll prefer stable currencies, because they cannot do a sudden shift to bitcoin as it is very volatile!

They can legalize crypto by introducing their own crypto in to the market and imposing tax on other crypto currencies like how India did recently.

to be honest, I have a suspicion after putin declared bitcoin is a currency, I think they will make bitcoin a legal tender there, maybe that's the goal (free from sanctions). Russia is one of the countries with the largest natural resources in the world, so they are not afraid of economic sanctions from outside countries.

For now, neither of the two^1-2, because you mention the sanctions¹, which by the way, far from being an immediate act, can take months to be executed, Swift, for example, is not something immediate, it is complex to implement and not all countries are in that possible sanction although ironically they do support sanctions.

And the other part that is bitcoin² is uncertain in an "official".

In any case, the same official Ukrainian Twitter (https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1496817739419295751) account has a Fiat account for donations to its army, it is something that could have come to the surface at this moment and show that in the short term there could be news regarding a possible legalization in the short term.

Well there is a sanction on their gas and oil, I think the only way for Russia to make business is to use othrr options. Before this BTC legalization, they were excluding USD by only using EUR. Bitcoin would make sense if they couldn't make transactions using EUR anymore.

Whatever Russia.does for BITCOIN to have adoption in their region is going to be great for crypto investors.

Precisely because they have the greatest natural resources that makes them have power above all else.
In other words, they are able to make and change anything they do, including making decisions to legalize bitcoin in their country.
And this is also a good opportunity for bitcoin investors.

If Russia can do that then they might've done it already and I think that given the situation, no one's going to stop them from doing so, no way they're going to not do it as the sanction against them continues to build up. Also, what's the point of legalization though, it's not like they'll be able to buy barrels of oil in the black market.

They are actually used to it. So it will not matter to them.

I hesitate to believe such positive statement just because its related to bitcoin or crypto, other countries or say US can make a decision regarding their bitcoin regulations when it comes to that to oppose its enemies.

Shouldn't we be positive that another country adopts Bitcoin because finally another one comes up?
We seem to be clapping our hands with El Salvador adopting it.

When government discussed about shutting and freesing accounts, its should come into our minds that, our accounts could be one that will be frozen. Countries like El Salvador and Russia doesnt have plans freezing anyones account. And that I can conclude. I doubt China will change its mind about BTC but maybe one day when every country accepts BTC already.

It's always great and nice to hear, but not in a middle of a war.

It will be another headlines of "Bitcoin is only for criminals" will be in trend once Russia did it. People without having knowledge about crypto will usually say this especially those who are greatly affected and used to say Russia is a criminal espcially for declaring a war.

Bitcoin will just give them little help towards the sanctions impose to them since in the first place this cannot help them transporting or exporting their product to the country who imposed this to them and those country is so huge then have many allies so for sure even if they legalized bitcoin still their economy will be crumpled as what US like. And this one will create more trouble as Putin already warn about this so les hope to see a brighter side and both of their officials will realize that there's no good for them to go thru this harsh condition.

While such option is possible, it cannot be guaranteed to happen, at least not at the moment. This is because Russia right now, still has a couple of better options left which makes it far from being in a very desperate situation. Right now, legalising bitcoins or any type of crypto currency would probably be the last thing they would think about considering the fact that there are much more pressing matters at the moment, having the current war as the most important one.

I guess everyone likes to view things from their own lenses. So when its a major war, Bitcoiners are getting speculative about what that means for Bitcoin while flagmakers around the world would be wondering how many more Ukraine flags they should be printing. (Quite a lot it seems from the "I stand with Ukraine" trending).

I think legality of Bitcoin isn't really a major question when it comes to these geopolitical moves. A lot more is at stake right now depending on how the annexation moves about. Putin's target seems to be the sitting head, Zelinsky, who has been very pro-west and pro-NATO. Once Putin gets rid of him and decides to retract, this will all die a slow death. The Ukrainians may well be able to handle it themselves by not falling and just carrying on with Gureilla warfare. The taliban did it to the Russians once.

Finally, it may just flare up and bring other countries into the fray. In that case, its bye bye world.

In all the possible scenarios, I don't see what role Bitcoin has to play. It simply doesn't matter enough. Bitcoin is a peacetime technology. If the world goes to war, we'll all rapidly realize that these were pretty rich problems.

As a Ukrainian, I really hope they won't make this move, although I do agree it would have been a smart one. Russia invaded my home country, and sanctions are simply necessary because it has to take a hit for what it has done and stop sending its troops and aircraft to Ukraine. That being said, while the sanctions are getting stronger all the time, NeuroticFish is right that there's still a lot of resistance when it comes to banning Russia from SWIFT, thanks to German and Italian leaders, so I don't think it needs a type of payment that can't be censored yet.

El Salvador is a regular country, while Russia is a terrorist country, brutally invading a sovereign state just because it can. We usually don't clap when terrorists use Bitcoin, do we?

by having high resources, Russia can / is not afraid to face economic sanctions from outside countries, I believe Russia will definitely legalize bitcoin so that investors can have great opportunities.
but on the other hand I'm very sad why the war had to happen

These sanctions are not just only from the US but the EU and other countries too have pronounced these sanctions on Russia so the option you think of them using the EUR is out of the question and even if they decided to adopt Bitcoin as a currency today which I don't think was their target but looking at if Bitcoin mining would be regulated or banned, I don't think that they could spend Bitcoin on the most essential things they might need during this time.

And I dare say one more thing, US and EU will not exclude Russia from the SWIFT alliance. Russia is the main oil supplier to the US and EU countries. if US and EU exclude Russia from SWIFT, they are pushing Russia towards China, I don't think they will be that stupid.
Russia is the 4th largest gold and foreign currency reserve country in the world, it has a lot of opportunities to avoid sanctions. Many hypothesize that they will use bitcoin to fend off sanctions. bitcoin is good but with volatility and manipulation not the ideal choice to save a country's economy.

With the news of SWIFT payment network being included in the sanctions package Russia will turn to cryptocurrency value transfer method, there was already a mention in press releases of e-rubel some time ago

The possibility could be legalized, considering that transactions and payments in Russia both in Ukraine will have limitations, due to criticism from various countries, especially Russia which has received several sanctions, so if it continues like this Putin will definitely plan to pay via Bitcoin. There are confusions, for sure we hope that this war will end soon so that there are no casualties. despite the conflict being fought over, I'm not sure what's really going on on the ground. The mainstream media doesn't fully tell the truth on the ground. Russia is too strong for Ukraine in terms of war.

#StopWar :(

Little confused. How is bitcoin and crypto currencies going to help Russia with the sanctions? Maybe yeah, the bank sanctions and to save the oligarch and the rich. Even then nothing much can be done since all their asestes and bank accounts are already frozen. Would have been a different story if they moved to bitcoin before the sanctions. But how is it going to help with the supply chain? Anyone dealing with Russia and breaking the sanction would face criminal charges. The the other party dealing with Russia must be willing to accept the currency and do it without anyone noticing. The only thing they can evade is the banking sanction and the use of US dollars and EURO. And all those thing really doesn't matter to them. They have China.

A choice of last resort, possibly. However, at this point, which financial institutions in the world are open for Bitcoin transactions? Anyway, for now, the sanctions against Russia are still mild and moderate so to speak despite all the rhetoric coming from world leaders. Having said this, Russian banks and other financial institutions are far from losing avenues and ways to deal with their foreign counterparts. It would be a different story, though, if Russia is banned from SWIFT.

We really hope that bitcoin will be legalized soon, and the war will stop soon, so that there will be no more casualties, even though there are many sanctions that come from various countries but Russia will never back down from this war, even though other countries block Russia's access to the main market but Russia will never be afraid, the question is will the security of European countries be better because of the sanctions given to Russia,,????

The whole cryptocurrency industry hates war because everybody can be affected. I am based in Asia but we can already feel the side-effects brought on by this invasion of Ukraine because gasoline prices are going up and there is a big possibility that flour can also go up wildly which can affect the prices and quality of breads here, not to mention the coming increase in feeds for animal raising. The destructive nature of war especially this one in Ukraine right now is to affect even people who are in remote places of the world, so away from Europe.

Now, with the imposed sanctions carried by different countries who are not big fans of Vladimir Putin - may be with the big exemption of China, Iran, North Korea and to some extent Germany which is under the mercy of Russia on energy - it would be hard for Russia to do business internationally but am sure that Putin is not a naïve general so as to not thought on this scenario in advance. I am sure that Bitcoin or cryptocurrency for that matter has been on the table of Putin as one of the best alternatives to get away from sanctions.

But the question is: Will this be good for Bitcoin in the long run?

So far, the impact may not have led to the legalization of bitcoin, as it was mentioned that not many countries have legalized transactions with bitcoin, so that if swifts are banned, there is no solution for cooperation between countries. And if Russia's fiat weakens, it's not impossible that they will use bitcoin, we'll see how it develops, because the Chinese government has persuaded them to take diplomacy.

Glory Ukraine, Ukrainians. The world behind you and even the Russians behind you. Its just the f*king Putin and his army are against you and your beautiful nation. I do hope that the European Commissions and the world will have some more realistic support for your nation to stop Putin invades into Kiev and succeed with their invasion.

Please give me a chance to explain about my topic. I don't hope Putin government will get advantage by legalizing Bitcoin but hope or not, it is what they can do. One of their resorts to break the massive sanctions against them. In addition, I do believe that legalization of Bitcoin will happen, sooner or later. We already have a first nation made it, El Salvador and we all know in history that the first time is the hardest, then next ones usually more easily.

Sanctions don't stop Putin because the fact is he won't get poorer because of sanctions. Russians get poorer, not Putin. Does he care about Russians? I guess not.

At the moment, Russia says it is not waging any war but is liberating Ukraine from a corrupt government of Nazis, drug addicts, and other scoundrels. Denationalization and demilitarization are a priority of Russia's steps. Now a lot of news that is not true, information warfare, is becoming prevalent in the age of the Internet.
Therefore, to blame one side, it is important to learn the news on the other side to draw the right conclusions, otherwise, it is a one-sided game.
Do you think that a country as large as Russia did not weigh all the "yes" and "no" before launching this operation?   Eight years of training have created all the guarantees that Russia can declare that it is ready for all sanctions. Well, the right one, will always showtime. And you and I are witnessing historical events.

Russia is changing their approach towards crypto now. Just few days ago, Russian Ministry of Finance has prepared and submitted a new bill to expand crypto regulations to the government. So seems that they are preparing for this crypto adoption in their country. However, it was mentioned that crypto payments are still prohibited, which I believe, may possibly change as this war is still ongoing. We will see in the next coming days what other developments will arise as this crisis between Russia and Ukraine seems not to be stopping anytime soon.

https://news.bitcoin.com/russias-finance-ministry-submits-bill-to-legalize-crypto-investments-ban-payments/

A lot of Russians are also against with Putin's decision. However, I think, Putin already made up his mind and no one can stop him now.

None of us wanted or love war, we all hated it.

But there are political leaders that love having this because they will gain tons of money from this.


So i wont mention which country leaders are those but surely many of US have idea on which they are lol.

possibilities are , and i think this will have boost to the crypto market .

Russia is already in the process of legalizing cryptocurrencies.

Russia has already recognized BTC as a “currency” instead of an outright ban in which the Russian Minister of Finance isn’t in favor of it. They choose to regulate it but legalization is still a different story in my opinion in which Ukraine actually did it. For now, I think legalizing BTC may take time due to the ongoing escalation between Russia and Ukraine.

Using BTC for funding in order to evade sanctions by multiple countries like the US, NATO, South Korea, Japan, etc., is somewhat a smart move for Putin, sad to say.

Today Putin held a meeting in the Urals and it turned out that Russia planned to capture Ukraine in 1-4 days. Therefore, they are shocked by such a tough resistance to aggression. There is a shortage of ammunition in Russia, and other states refuse to sell it to her. If Ukraine holds out for ten days, Russia will have to sit down at the negotiating table and capitulate.
Let me remind you that in the first two days, according to official data from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, more than 3,500 Russian invaders, 102 tanks, 356 armored vehicles, 14 combat aircraft and 8 helicopters were destroyed.
The recent economic sanctions have cost Russia $20 billion every day of the war against Ukraine.
The technical preparations for Russia's disconnection from the SWIFT international payment system have already begun. Let's see how long Putin's regime can endure.

Everyone hates war in the world but I feel like starting this war could have an even bigger effect on bitcoin, if you check the situation on these two counties both of them need to use bitcoin for their people and even their governments, Russia is under economic sanctions bu the USA and many nato countries while bitcoin can be the solution for then and people in Ukraine need to cash out their money and migrate to another country I believe this situation will force both countries to use nad legalize bitcoin.

The fact is that on February 17, a law has already been adopted in Ukraine, which is the first step for the legalization of cryptocurrency. But all prospects for further legalization in the near future are suspended by an undeclared war.

I will write data from open sources. There are about 13,000 tanks in the Russian army.
https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4393829.html
These are mainly modernized T-72 and T-80 tanks.
About 10,000 tanks are mothballed in case of war.

I have never heard that the Russian army buys ammunition in other countries. You can find information about aircraft, military vehicles, reconnaissance drones, but not about ammunition.
When you hear the news about a large number of knocked out tanks, you will wonder if this is true.
The growth of the NATO army near the Russian borders is a huge threat to start World War 3.

With this massive sanctions against Russia, I think they will have no option than to resort to a fast and easier means of carrying out transaction which probably means Bitcoin would be the answer. Legalizing Bitcoin in Russia now would  means a boycott to the financial sanctions on them. Currently they have been cut of from most wire transfer firms with headquarters in the western part of the world. However to ease and settle most financial transaction in a time like this, P2P is the option
and Bitcoin is the answer.

In fact Ukraine does not really need Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, they can donation charity through fiat currency and bank system. Only Russia are facing with serious sanctions. I know there are more conveniences when doing things with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and Ukraine are doing this.

People on the world are supporting Ukraine and I am glad to see it happened. F* Putin to start this war and history will judge him. His name will be marked in global history, not only in this war or in Ukraine but the whole world will remember him.

Seeing that sanctions are being applied on Russia which has seen several sectors of the economy including the banking sector being affected , if Russia supports bitcoin then chances are high that other countries will pull out of it.... At this moment most countries want to do the opposite of what Puttin and his forces are doing, to register their displeasure. But for now bitcoin has no borders hence i dont really expect much to be affected.

Sanctions on Russia will have effects on Russia and other nations. The world now is globalized so changes in a big nation like Russia will do affect other nations.

It's better for all if they did not start this war but it already started. So now it is better for all if they stop this war as soon as possible. Less sanctions, less deaths, less loses in war expenses and their reputation won't be damaged further. It seems like the whole world support Ukraine. Only a few nations like China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Belarus ... support Russia. I think the unbalanced support for Russia and Ukraine shows the truth about this war that is non sense.

I don't think that will happen, pulling out of btc just because Putin decided to accept btc won't do them any good and certainly won't harm Putin in any way, why should they do it when they are in the space before Putin would ever imagine it,
The only way to deal with Putin is not to engage in any form of trade even if they decided to accept crypto, if nobody does business with him, accepting crypto won't be of such a great benefit to him and that will hurt him even more.

What about Yuan offer from China? maybe it will also be a second option besides Bitcoin? Aren't these 2 countries an alliance that is hard to separate? and have equal access to the economy as well as in other respects for Russia?
If Bitcoin becomes an alternative for Russia then it will avoid many parties as well as invite many other countries that are under Russian rule to follow suit. As we know Russia has influence over the countries under it. And once said to use Bitcoin, it is possible that other countries will also legalize the use of Bitcoin. As a result, Bitcoin is adopted on a wider scale.

What you say is the view as a common public. There were more and more things that need to be considered prior to it. The first thing is the investment on Russia from foreign countries. The list falls as Germany, China and US being the top three. When the country isn't allowed to make trade the impact will be over these countries. Thats the reason why these countries don't make any statements on the sanctions. For now bitcoin helps them tackle the situation, beyond that isolating Russia from trade isn't a possible solution.

Putin and his entourage this time did not count on such harsh international sanctions that Russia faced after a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. They thought they could get away with it this time too, as previous incursions into Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in 2014 had received a rather mild response from the international community. Now the Kremlin has already realized that they have committed a great stupidity, but they do not want to admit it, just as they hide that the sanctions this time turned out to be destructive for the Russian economy.
Putin is not going to legalize cryptocurrency, he does not care about the people of Russia. He wants to legalize his imperial plans for his own exaltation in any way. We already see what amendments to the law on digital assets are being prepared for the population. Anyone who has cryptocurrency and does not provide the relevant Saoi authorities with secret keys to wallets will be subject to criminal liability.

This thing Putin is doing is totally uncalled for, how on earth will his actions determines the fate of the citizens without considering the negative consequence, that there will be no more privacy? all users should be directed with the use of centralized exchanges? Well i expect all efforts on that to be futile because his intention to regulate all crypto sectors and from his actions, it does not seem ready to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender but rather colonized users through centralized exchange by enforcing regulations.

The war between Ukraine and Russia introduced bitcoin to the world. Because bitcoin is an effective tool to circumvent the embargo. If Russia uses it wisely, it can get good results.

No, Bitcoin was already more or less popular even before Russia started to invade Ukraine. So the invasion didn't introduce Bitcoin to the world. As a matter of fact, Bitcoin's popularity is the reason why it became an option to the people of both countries in keeping their wealth, to those who wish to cross borders and carry with them all their life savings, to those who wish to donate to Ukraine's fight for freedom, to Russia to somehow evade sanctions, and so on.

It was said in several topics here in forum that yes, Russia could utilize the usage of bitcoin to avoid the sanctions imposed to them by many countries in the world. They can opt to use it instead of attempting accessing their bank accounts, which by the way are frozen in order to save the wealth still available to them, so it would be out of reach of the sanctions. And to freely use it for transactions such as using it as payment method when they don't have any cash left to purchase the things they want and need.

Bitcoin became really useful for Russian citizens because it brought them convenience amidst the chaos. They could bypass the sanctions since bitcoin is a decentralized entity, hence, out of reach of the imposed sanctions to them which just covers freezing of their centralized accounts. Although it's still too early to tell if they would legalize it, since they can still benefit from it without really arranging legal matters about it.

well Putin declared it as a formal currency, I wouldn't be surprised if they do this, they also have lots of other options besides crypto to get over the sanctions they received from major banks

To be legalized Bitcoin worldwide it must have to gain world wide adoption and huge popularity. Thats why we can say that very soon Bitcoin will be legalized.

I would say  this wear is going to be long one and Russians will see a slump in their economy postwar.  US and allies will adopt stricter measures in long term. This will somewhere force Russia to do Non USD  transactions, Russia will use ruble based transactions as much as possible, but yes bitcoin can also gain popularity amongst common Russians for international transactions. However legalization of bitcoin might not happen as russia has previously taken harsh stand on crypto and this will likely to continue

Yes, Some of the news could have approached the other way around but if they are already considering finalizing a bill on crypto regulations it is their first step into bitcoin legitimacy.  Perhaps this will take some time but the same Russian central bank proposed to shut down bitcoin earlier this year. if they reverse their decision and take bitcoin against international debt that is totally fine understandable.  Putin has probably seen and calculated bitcoin problems thoroughly.

If bitcoin gets legalized because of a war, I will be feeling very disappointed. I mean we have been great for many years now and the world and the governments will realize we are good only due to a war? Did we had to literally start killing each other to realize that crypto is above governments?

It would be a let down because we could have understood the same thing way before any of this happened, I am not saying that it would have to be very quick, but if it is so quick during this period, then it could have been quicker even without it as well. I feel like people are ignoring the benefits of crypto until it is the very last second and that upsets me.

When there will be a lot of difficulties in financial transactions and in my opinion is a good idea if Ukraine and Russia legalize Bitcoin, the government should see the number of Bitcoin communities that have reached hundreds of millions of active users so it would be better if it legalized Bitcoin.

I'm not sure that Russia will do it in the near future. Moreover, the question is rather technical.

In Russia, measures are now being taken to prevent capital from fleeing the country. Therefore, it is not in the interests of the authorities to legalize cryptocurrency for citizens. Many are now leaving Russia as production closes and inflation and unemployment rise.
Putin and his entourage can, without any official laws, try to circumvent sanctions with the help of cryptocurrency. True, it is unlikely that he will succeed on a global scale. After all, in addition to the currency, you also need to transport the goods, and this will be tracked

As far as I know they have already announced that their partners can pay their bills to Russia using Bitcoin if they want to.
Also Bitcoin is not banned in Russia, though it hasn't been declared a legal tender. Taking into account the circumstances it is likely that they will adopt Bitcoin. It is a 'universal' currency that they can use without raising the power of other countries' currencies.