Russian authorities say Bitcoin illegal

[freebitcoinwin]

Russian authorities have issued warnings against using Bitcoin, saying the virtual currency could be used for money laundering or financing terrorism and that treating it as a parallel currency is illegal.

"Systems for anonymous payments and cyber currencies that have gained considerable circulation - including the most well-known, Bitcoin - are money substitutes and cannot be used by individuals or legal entities," the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said on February6.

It added that Russian law stipulates that the rouble is the sole official currency and that introducing any other monetary units or substitutes was illegal.

Russia's central bank also said on January 27 that Bitcoin trade was highly speculative and that the unit carried a big risk of losing value.

"Citizens and legal entities risk being drawn - even unintentionally - into illegal activity, including laundering of money obtained through crime, as well as financing terrorism," it warned.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/09/us-russia-bitcoin-idUSBREA1806620140209

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[roslinpl]

My friend there was about plenty threads about russia, why just not join into some open thread?

Another thread about "russia - bitcoin illegal"

quite borring and not needed at all

[2bfree]

does this effect btc-e??

[moni3z]

BTC-E is in Bulgaria though the operators could be Russian, who knows.
Russia did not make bitcoins "illegal", they issued a warning like every other country. You can still buy bitcoins on localbitcoins Russia, with WMZ and other Russian virtual payments nothing has changed except you can't walk around Russia declaring Bitcoin as legal tender, or open a bank that offers Bitcoin savings accounts.

[Sonny]

BTC-E is in Bulgaria though the operators could be Russian, who knows.
Russia did not make bitcoins "illegal", they issued a warning like every other country. You can still buy bitcoins on localbitcoins Russia, with WMZ and other Russian virtual payments nothing has changed except you can't walk around Russia declaring Bitcoin as legal tender, or open a bank that offers Bitcoin savings accounts.

So, those "Russia banned bitcoin" and "It is illegal to use Bitcoin in Russia" are all FUDs, right?  

[kwukduck]

Well bitcoin isn't money in the classical sense, its pure information (now of course that's true for their official money too), how can you make exchange of information illegal, specially when this information doesn't have any specific to say about anything other than it being unique and signed by somebody.
Banning bitcoin is a really tricky thing to do for this reason I think. Should we ban email too? I value email, or websites, they go for quite a bit of money too, what if we start selling those as commodity...? Oh wait..

[DaFockBro]

In Russia, Bitcoin bans you!

[Honeypot]

I guess snowden made a really good choice in choosing his new scion of democracy and civil liberties.

You should all follow him and bow to tsar putin.

[bryant.coleman]

does this effect btc-e??

They shifted to Bulgaria before the ban came in place. But none of their support staff speaks Bulgarian. They only communicate in Russian and in some cases English.