December 18, a draft code implying penalization of issuance and exchange of, and operation with “money surrogates”, was introduced to the Russian Parliament, the State Duma. Russian authorities were going to equal cryprocurrencies to the said surrogates, and even introduce criminal and administrative punishment for any operations related thereto.
The new code should have becone the first step to banning cryptocurrencies in Russia. However, suddenly the legislators nearly legalized bitcoin operations within the Russian Federation.
http://forklog.net/a-draft-bill-implying-bitcoin-legalization-introduced-in-the-russian-parliament/
