[2014-02-06] Now official: using Bitcoins is completely illegal in Russia

[roslinpl]

Great!  Everything is going according to plan 

according to what plan?


do you know something that we should know to?

(or you think you do?)

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[bitbouillion]

If I understand correctly it is also illegal to conduct trade in Russia between a Russian individual and  / or legal entity and another Russian individual and  / or legal entity in USD, EUR etc., so in effect this places Bitcoin in a similar position to that of USD, EUR etc.

Correct, it is illegal to trade, transact or deal in foreign currencies in Russia - unless one party to such deal is a properly licensed financial entity. There are multiple bank exchange offices everywhere in Russia, so exchange between foreign currency and rubles is not a problem.

Situation is completely different for cryptocurrencies. Since Bank of Russia specifically prohibited financial entities from touching cryptocurrencies, any kind of Bitcoin use is now considered illegal for anyone. There was no statement on the legality of their ownership just yet.

As I understand this, trade with or use of bitcoins is illegal now, but not holding bitcoins. Otherwise it would be illegal to hold physical USD or EUR on Russian territory too.

And what law prevents a Russian to buy bitcoins on a foreign exchange and keep them in a wallet abroad?

[oakpacific]

Being Russians, how can these bureaucrats be so ignorant about math?

You can't outlaw the creation and circulation of Bitcoin, unless you outlaw computation with SHA-256 hash functions and possibly, outlaw any logic operation as it's entirely doable to rewrite the hash function to achieve the same output, only taking more steps and longer time.

[ShawnLeary]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES" 

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

They never left it

[Arvicco]

As I understand this, trade with or use of bitcoins is illegal now, but not holding bitcoins. Otherwise it would be illegal to hold physical USD or EUR on Russian territory too.

And what law prevents a Russian to buy bitcoins on a foreign exchange and keep them in a wallet abroad?

At least, so far there was no statement from Russian authorities on the legality of Bitcoin ownership per se. In practical terms, any attempt to police Bitcoin ownership by individual users will not work. Also, there is no law prohibiting such ownership that I'm aware of.

However, Russian police is not very concerned about following the letter of the law. They routinely miraculously find "just enough crack to put in jail" while searching any person those in power don't like. If they find bitcoins while searching the house of an opposition figure, for example, they may throw a "money laundering using cryptocurrencies" charge on top of all the others, and pliant Russian court will just rubber-stamp the charges as it always does.

[bitbouillion]

However, Russian police is not very concerned about following the letter of the law. They routinely miraculously find "just enough crack to put in jail" while searching any person those in power don't like.

On the other hand, if you are on the right side of this corrupt system, just go ahead and use bitcoins.

[smith88]

Considering how widely known the Russian government is corrupt and ran by multiple mob families who are only concerned about their initiatives... I am not surprised or bothered.  Bitcoin is much stronger than this.

[Last1212]

There are no official statements in Russia about Bitcoin prohibition. All this news - "yellow" press. Nowadays there are discussions about that question but - no official prohibition for individuals.

[anu]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES" 

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

They never left it

Indeed. The Russian communists are still in charge and they have a history of charming gullible Westerners into investing there - only to disappropriate them later. Should this news be real, it should be a warning sign for all foreign investors in Russia that another cycle of openness->investment->disappropriation is coming to an end.

[Nemo1024]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES" 

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

No, they went to "religionism", which is even worse than communism. The church has got an enormous amount of power and the people are plunged into the brainwashed real dark age.

[Last1212]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES"  

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

No, they went to "religionism", which is even worse than communism. The church has got an enormous amount of power and the people are plunged into the brainwashed real dark age.

Lol, your mass media washed your brains. All info you get from mass media about Russia - lie.

[jadagles]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES"  

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

No, they went to "religionism", which is even worse than communism. The church has got an enormous amount of power and the people are plunged into the brainwashed real dark age.

Lol, your mass media washed your brains. All info you get from mass media about Russia - lie.

Please explain, I'm very interested. As far as I know, Putin is using the church as a tool for ruling the country. Sadly this type of secularization will end in hatred of people over the church and not on the power, thus breaking the spirit of the country.

[roslinpl]

Bitcoin is a truly one world currency, Russia is seeing the western world adopt it very quick and may be rejecting it only for the sake of rivalry against the occident.

Russia is not a country
Russia is a state of mind.

[seriouscoin]

i'm sure many prostitutes in Russia (high end escort service for foreign VIPs) would love to accept btc for their services, it would only bringing many clients around the world.

[escrow.ms]

It's not illegal to have/trade bitcoins in russia, if it completely banned webmoney should have posted some kind of announcement.

http://wmx.webmoney.ru/

The only change I see there is..
Attention! The minimum required passport level for performing top-ups and withdrawals is a formal passport that passed a data verification procedure.

[Last1212]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES"  

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

No, they went to "religionism", which is even worse than communism. The church has got an enormous amount of power and the people are plunged into the brainwashed real dark age.

Lol, your mass media washed your brains. All info you get from mass media about Russia - lie.

Please explain, I'm very interested. As far as I know, Putin is using the church as a tool for ruling the country. Sadly this type of secularization will end in hatred of people over the church and not on the power, thus breaking the spirit of the country.

Any prooflink about Putin usage of church?

[roslinpl]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES"  

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

No, they went to "religionism", which is even worse than communism. The church has got an enormous amount of power and the people are plunged into the brainwashed real dark age.

Lol, your mass media washed your brains. All info you get from mass media about Russia - lie.

Please explain, I'm very interested. As far as I know, Putin is using the church as a tool for ruling the country. Sadly this type of secularization will end in hatred of people over the church and not on the power, thus breaking the spirit of the country.

Any prooflink about Putin usage of church?

I dont get it at all.

Putin seems to be a nice and inteligent guy.
He should invest into bitcoin on his own!

Or maybe!! it his his plan to dump price
hehehe

[freebit13]

http://genproc.gov.ru/smi/news/genproc/news-86432/

Googletranslated with some clean-up:

General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation held a joint meeting on the legality of the anonymous payment systems and cryptocurrencies


February 6, 2014 , 16:19 Prosecutor General

Monitoring the situation of the so-called anonymous virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies) shows a growing interest using them for the purpose of money laundering of proceeds from crime.

In this regard, the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation held a group meeting of the Interagency Working Group on combating crimes in the sphere of the economy devoted to the prevention of use of anonymous payment systems and cryptocurrencies on the territory of Russian Federation. Meeting was chaired by Chief of the supervision of the execution of federal law Anatoly Palamarchuk.

This group consisted of Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Dmitry Skobelkin, head of Bank of Russia financial crime prevention, as well as officials of the FSB (Russian FBI) and the Russian Interior Ministry, central staff of the General Prosecutor of Russia.

In accordance with Art.27 of the Federal Law "On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation", the only allowed currency for circulation in the Russian Federation is the ruble. Introduction on the territory of Russia of other monetary units or money substitutes is illegal. Distributed anonymous payment systems and cryptocurrencies, including the most famous of them - Bitcoin are deemed money substitutes and are illegal for use by either individuals or legal entities (companies).

The distinguishing feature Bitcoin and similar virtual currencies are anonymity and lack of real value. Its price is determined solely by speculative actions that entails high financial risks, as a consequence its trading is a violation of the statutes both for citizens and organizations. The owners of cryptocurrencies in Russia are denied any means of legal protection in courts or administrative entities.

Following the meeting, outlining specific joint actions of the Bank of Russia and law enforcement to prevent criminal violations in the sphere of money circulation in Russia, a number of specific measures is approved aimed at preventing such violations of citizens and organizations associated with the use cryptocurrencies. Taking into account international experience, commission identified further areas for legal regulation and enforcement in this sector.

Development of the situation and the enforcement of the above mentioned measures will be discussed at the next group meeting.

Now who gets to argue exactly where the Satoshis are hiding... are they actually on the territory of Russia?

[jadagles]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES"  

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

No, they went to "religionism", which is even worse than communism. The church has got an enormous amount of power and the people are plunged into the brainwashed real dark age.

Lol, your mass media washed your brains. All info you get from mass media about Russia - lie.

Please explain, I'm very interested. As far as I know, Putin is using the church as a tool for ruling the country. Sadly this type of secularization will end in hatred of people over the church and not on the power, thus breaking the spirit of the country.

Any prooflink about Putin usage of church?

You need to study, read some books to understand these things. Read sociology and philosophy on this topic, faith and secularism. Also you need to see what types are there etc. and relate this with the social environment in Russia and on what foundations is built.

[Last1212]

Poor Russians...  Their government is saying "WE ARE STAYING IN THE DARK AGES"  

They didn't go back to communism when I wasn't looking did they?

Weird.

TC.

No, they went to "religionism", which is even worse than communism. The church has got an enormous amount of power and the people are plunged into the brainwashed real dark age.

Lol, your mass media washed your brains. All info you get from mass media about Russia - lie.

Please explain, I'm very interested. As far as I know, Putin is using the church as a tool for ruling the country. Sadly this type of secularization will end in hatred of people over the church and not on the power, thus breaking the spirit of the country.

Any prooflink about Putin usage of church?

You need to study, read some books to understand these things. Read sociology and philosophy on this topic, faith and secularism. Also you need to see what types are there etc. and relate this with the social environment in Russia and on what foundations is built.

You need proofs before saying smth... No one will believe your words without facts and there are no facts now. You don't know anything about Russia, but you tries to look smart in related aspects.