Russia to confiscate crypto, central bank against private digital currency

Yesterday, two pieces of commentary on digital currencies came from Russian authorities, neither particularly supportive. The head of the Bank of Russia said that it is against private currencies in any form, as they threaten financial sovereignty. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to implement measures allowing it to seize digital currencies in the case of criminal activity.

The central bank on private currency

Speaking at Russia’s State Duma yesterday, central bank lead Elvira Nabiullina said: “We are for financial technologies to develop. But we do not support private money in any form, digitally or not. If they replace public money, they will destroy both monetary policy and financial stability.” She joins many others in the recent uptick of conversation around privately run ‘stablecoins’. A recent G7 report concluded that private digital currencies are a systemic risk. While the Bank of Russia is clearly against such projects, it is looking at public central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Nabiullina continued: “At the same time, we are studying, like many countries, the digital currency of central banks. But this is a process of studying, and we need to look at what we will get from this digital money. What will be an additional advantage, compared to the fact that we are developing an electronic money transfer system.”

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