Bitcoin Will “Never” be Legalized in Russia, Claims Minister

Russia’s minister for communications and mass media has opined that the country will never allow cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to be legalized.

Speaking to reporters in Moscow on Monday, Russian minister Nikolai Nikiforov claimed the country’s laws would never consider bitcoin as a legal cryptocurrency after deeming it a “foreign project.”

According to TASS, the country’s largest news agency wholly owned by the Russian state, Nikiforov stated:

The Russian official went on to add that the government was open to digital cryptographic tokens through ICOs and bitcoin’s underlying technology, the blockchain. “However, I think that it is quite possible to use blockchain technology and the use of various digital tokens,” he added.

In late 2015, Nikiforov publicly spoke toward the “necessity to explore the use of blockchain technology in the best interests of the public.” The Russian official claimed the innovation can help both the national economy and “relations between the state and the public.”

Nikiforov’s aversion to the world’s first and most prominent cryptocurrency hasn’t stopped the official from revealing the state’s intent to issue its own cryptocurrency, dubbed the ‘cryptoruble’. The state-issued cryptocurrency will be developed and issued “quickly”, Nikiforov said, following a meeting between Moscow’s elite and Russian president Vladimir Putin last month.

While Russian authorities have long adopted a hostile stance toward decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ICOs and blockchain technology have seen far less scrutiny. In late October, Putin ordered ministries to develop a regulatory framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency mining operations in the country. Last week, a senior Russian central bank official threw his support for ICOs, underlining their “huge potential” for financing startups in the country.