wonder why every article that has Russia in it has to be somehow connected to Putin?
"one of Putin’s aides on all matters pertaining to technological security co-owns a company" who? what is his name
what makes you think he is an aid "on all matters",sigh
and Putin meeting (more like them shaking hands somewhere on his way to the conference) with one of the Etherium cofounders
doesn't make Kremlin involved in an ICO of 100 million dollars,which is simply nothing compared to the amounts of money
required to be even close to scratching China's dominance in this area
also replacing dollar with an uncontrollable cryptocurrency like bitcoin is simply retarded,do you really think Putin is retarded?

The original four members of the Ethereum team were Vitalik Buterin, Mihai Alisie, Anthony Di Iorio, and Charles Hoskinson,

so I think Vitalik must have a hand in this The USA should have made this move a long time ago, because they have the

technological capabilities to design and manufacture their own ASIC chips in Silicon Valley and with government subsidies,

they would have had a huge advantage over other countries. 

Perhaps Russian leadership would view Bitcoin mining operations as a way to create additional 'natural' resources for their country. It appears that the cost of electricity in Russia is not quite as low as China but still inexpensive. https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/average-electricity-prices-kwh.html A Bitcoin mining operation in northern Russia would provide significant cooling benefits as well.