According to the business daily Kommersant, Russian prosecutors are convinced that investigating agencies, among other governmental bodies, should be permitted to set up cryptocurrency wallets and be able to hold and convert digital assets that have been seized into fiat currency.
According to Prosecutor Madina Dolgieva of the Office’s Main Judicial Department, the Prosecutor General’s Office has continuously argued for the recognition of digital assets as property that can be taken, if acquired fraudulently.
Dolgieva made a comment about how courts continue to issue contradictory rulings, with some recognizing cryptocurrency as property while others do not during the meeting, which was sponsored by the Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building at the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.
The present law “On Digital Financial Assets,” which came into effect in 2021, only partially addresses the issue of cryptocurrency regulation in Russia. The State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian legislature, is now debating a bill introducing modifications.
According to Madina Dolgieva, seizing a physical wallet containing digital assets, for instance, is merely half the work done because the cryptocurrency still needs to be cashed out. She stressed that this is where the issues start because domestic exchanges are still waiting for licenses and the prosecutor’s office isn’t allowed to use overseas platforms.
The prosecutor believes it is essential to let the investigators use their own wallets and convert the cryptocurrency, whose use has significantly expanded in the Russian Federation since the government imposed limitations on international transfers of fiat currency in February of this year.
The proposal is made despite the Central Bank of Russia’s opposition to the country’s legalization of cryptocurrency transactions. The monetary authority agreed to support the draft bill submitted to the Duma on the condition that even mining rewards would only be exchanged inside Russia under unique “experimental legal regimes.”
