Why would they restrict crypto? I thought Russia would be more in favor of it based on their ideology, but apparently not.
LOL. Russia wants to control everything. The government is authoritarian in nature. That is why they are restricting crypto in general. Even bitcoin and other crypto's are not yet recognized although there has been a back and forth discussions about trying to adopt them last time I checked. They said 2018 but I doubt that will because you can't trust anything coming from Putin's government. I still somewhat skeptics but we have to wait and see because right now I read that they are planning to put up a mining right to rival that of China. I don't know why the sudden U-turn regarding crypto's now. But I will still continue my skepticism though.
Putin crypto currency is the salvation. At the moment it is the only way to get into the Russian economy of the investment. I'm sure that Putin will try to control all transactions and to take with them a large tax. I expect nothing less from a dictator not welcome.