Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill into law prohibiting digital financial assets as payments more than a month after it was introduced to the country\u2019s lower chamber of Parliament.<\/p>\n
In a Thursday update, the Russian State Duma noted that Putin signed a bill suspending certain parts of an existing federal law \u201con banks and banking activities,\u201d effectively making it illegal for people to use cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services. The initial draft of the bill from June 7 specified the \u201cprohibition against the introduction of other monetary units or monetary surrogates on the territory of the Russian Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Duma chair approved the draft bill on June 8, and following revisions and other considerations, the upper chamber of Parliament, the Federation Council, approved the legislation on July 8. Under the Constitution of the Russian Federation, all bills need to be approved by both chambers before being signed into law by the president.<\/p>\n
Cointelegraph reported in June that the bill introduced the concept of an \u201celectronic platform\u201d \u2014 a financial platform, investment platform or information system in which digital financial assets are issued. Under the recently passed law, these platforms will likely be required to submit transactions and actions to the Russian central bank\u2019s registry as part of the national payments system.<\/p>\n