Will Russia Ever Embrace the Crypto-Ruble?

While, officially, Bitcoin continues to be illegal in Russia, President Vladimir Putin embraced blockchain technology in 2017 after a famous meeting with Ethereum designer Vitalik Buterin. Last summer we heard rumors of a Crypto-Ruble but no details. Today we have some more details but there are still a ton of questions to be answered.

According to this post at Coin Telegraph, the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain (RACIB) announced that the crypto-ruble will be introduced by the middle of 2019.

The problem remains that Russia’s establishment, including Putin himself, continues to be very conservative, if not downright hostile, in their approach to cryptocurrencies. The draft legislation on cryptocurrencies that was finally proposed by the Ministry of Finance earlier last month was awful.

Enter the Russian Dragon

In short, it was as negative towards cryptocurrencies as it could have been. After that, Putin’s top economic advisor, Sergei Glazyev, weighed in publicly saying that cryptocurrencies would give Russia a tool to get around U.S. economic sanctions.

Glazyev is a staunch Russian nationalist and understands completely the dynamics of the situation. He stands in stark opposition to many of the Bank of Russia’s policies vis-à-vis ruble. He feels, rightly, in my opinion, that central bank to beholden to the International Monetary Fund’s idea of fixing a currency imbalance.

He replaced Putin’s long-time friend and advisor Alexei Kudrin in late 2016 after Kudrin continued to advise Putin to slow down much-needed monetary reforms. If anyone can influence Putin on the value of embracing cryptocurrencies as a long-term political tool it is Glazyev.

So, now, after the proposed legislation, likely written to minimize Western sanctions, if not heavily influenced by outside forces, Putin himself weighed in on blockchain’s future. He’s not a strong believer in cryptocurrencies at this point. But, sees the importance of the blockchain.