Around 400 instances involving cryptocurrencies are being investigated by Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation. Yury Chikhanchin, the agency’s director, disclosed the figure to President Vladimir Putin during their meeting.
The high-ranking official said that the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), and the financial watchdog are all involved in these projects. He added that law enforcement officials had already opened 20 criminal cases involving digital assets.
Chikhanchin confirmed that Russians continue to use crypto platforms operating outside the nation while commenting on the level of the bitcoin turnover recorded by his department. He clarified: “This phenomenon continues to exist. And only on two foreign sites, two exchanges, several hundred thousand Russian citizens participate in transactions worth tens of billions.”
The regulator emphasized these are all not only settlements or business transactions, according to the cryptocurrency outlet of the Russian business news portal RBC. In Yury Chikhanchin’s opinion, several of these transfers have criminal implications.
In 2021, there were more than 1,500 court proceedings in Russia involving cryptocurrencies or crypto mining, according to government data published earlier this year. Criminal cases made up 62% of them, most of which included drug trafficking. The figures show a growth of 40% annually.
With a bill “On Digital Currency” that legislators are anticipated to evaluate during the fall sessions of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Russia has yet to properly regulate its cryptocurrency market. Officials are looking at the possibility of allowing cryptocurrency payments for small settlements in foreign trade, despite the consensus in Moscow that the ruble should continue to be the only legal cash in the nation.
