This doesn't amount to so much really. In the first place, Bitcoin remains unacceptable as payment in Russia. This new decision doesn't change it. So I don't interpret this as a sort of a statement that the country has turned Bitcoin-friendly. Perhaps this is a way for the country to somehow circumvent certain financial sanctions such as the SWIFT ban, for example.
Also, it is clear that the Russian government is aware that many of its people are "opening crypto wallets outside" the country. Russian officials don't seem to like it. And this latest decision somehow signals that the authorities will have to do something about this, probably resulting to its citizens only allowed to open wallets "in Russia [and] with entities supervised by the central bank."
So, in a way, this is even bad news to Russians.
Recently, the European Union approved the 8th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, banning citizens of the aggressor country from owning cryptocurrency wallets in the eurozone. Both citizens and residents of the Russian Federation will no longer be able to create personal accounts, as well as save digital assets in the European Union, regardless of how much their deposit is.
The new blocking measures will prevent Russians from using cryptocurrency wallets on the largest exchanges (Binance, Coinbase, etc.). By the way, it was the purchase of cryptocurrencies that has recently been one of the most popular ways to withdraw currency abroad.
Given the new restrictions, European companies will be prohibited from opening cryptocurrency accounts and cryptocurrency wallets for Russian citizens, as well as providing cryptocurrency storage services for Russians. In fact, we are talking about a complete ban on crypto-service operators registered in the EU from cooperating with residents of the aggressor country.
The tightening of European sanctions against the Russian Federation came after the fake "referendums" held by the Russian invaders in the Lugansk, Donetsk, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine.
