Russia not ready to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, says Kremlin

The Russian government keeps insisting that payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin would ruin its financial system.

Amid El Salvador officially accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender today, the Russian government has reiterated its negative stance to a scenario where BTC could be accepted as an official currency.

Dmitry Peskov, the official representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed that Russia has no reason to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender, local news agency RIA Novosti reported Sept. 7.

The Kremlin representative argued that putting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in line with traditional money instruments would bring nothing but detriments to the country’s financial and economic system.

“Clearly, Russia is not ready for such moves,” Peskov reportedly declared.

Peskov’s latest remarks come in line with the Russian government’s long-running skeptical approach to Bitcoin, echoing a similar statement by Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the State Duma and a key architect of Russia’s ban on cryptocurrency payments. Last August, Aksakov argued that accepting cryptocurrency as payment would essentially mean the “destruction of a financial system.”

Related: Survey finds 77% of Russian investors prefer Bitcoin to gold and forex

Russia officially banned cryptocurrency payments in the country as part of the country’s major crypto law, “On Digital Financial Assets,” in January 2021. The law does not prohibit Russians from purchasing or trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In May 2021, some Russian lawmakers were reportedly weighing a partial reversal of the crypto payment ban, reportedly considering amendments to allow crypto payments as a “contractual medium.”