- Russian government officials must declare their crypto assets henceforth
- Putin signs Digital Financial Assets Act into law.
Igor Krasnov, the head of Russian prosecutors, has announced that government workers in Russia will have to declare their crypto assets to the government starting from next year.
This was made known at a meeting with other heads of prosecution from other member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and others.
The SCO initiative was founded in 2001 based on forming a political, economic, and security alliance that will be beneficial to its members. The founding members include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. At the same time, it is also affiliated with countries like Iran, Belarus, Cambodia, and Afghanistan.
According to a report from Russia Today, Krasnov’s declaration means that Russia’s government has decided to keep tabs on every form of earning its public officials might be receiving.
In the past, crypto-assets were not part of the earnings declared by the public officials as the Russian labor ministry did not require them to make such declarations of earnings.
However, concerns have recently risen that government officials could be using their crypto assets to perpetuate corruption. The prosecutor general office was said to have seized almost half a billion-dollar crypto assets from government officials in the last three years.
Russia recognizes crypto assets.
President Putin of Russia has signed a law that recognizes bitcoin and other crypto assets in the country. However, upon the recognition by law, the cryptocurrencies can not be used to carry out transactions, i.e., Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can not be used as a legal means of payment services in Russia.
The new law, which is named the Digital Financial Assets Act, would come into play by the first day of 2021. This law also requires the officials of government to declare henceforth any earnings or holdings they might have in crypto assets.
