Russian state Duma creates working group to regulate crypto mining 

The Russian State Duma has built a working group to form regulations for the cryptocurrency mining industry. Vyacheslav Volodin, State Duma Chairman on Thursday, said during the official announcement that he has instructed the legislature to make the team address regulatory gaps in the crypto industry.

The Representative Committee on Security and Anti-corruption stated through its first Deputy Andrei Lugovoy that deputies have already drafted a bill that will be introduced in Duma without fail. The group was formed following these statements.

The right-wing Liberal Democratic People’s Party’s member Lugovoy further added that there is a need to solve the issue of Bitcoin mining regulation. He claimed that crypto miners earn $2 billion per annum in the country without paying any taxes. He went on to say: 

“Due to the lack of regulation on the production of cryptocurrency, law enforcement agencies generally fall into a dead end, since they cannot establish signs of a crime in individual activities and make the necessary procedural decisions.”

Duma, following Kazakhstan’s actions

The local business publication RBC noted in September that the chairman of the Financial Markets’ under the Russian State Duma Committee suggested the need to regulate crypto mining under the laws over entrepreneurial activities. The suggestion was warmly welcomed by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Economic Development. 

On the other hand, the central bank of Russia is still in opposition to the actions saying that it cannot support initiatives that would lead to new “monetary surrogates.”

Chairman Volodin previously noted that the issue of crypto mining in the country has become urgent after many crypto miners migrated from China to Russia and its neighbor, Kazakhstan. The two nations are now among the top three countries with the highest global hash rate on the BTC network.

As TheCoinRise reported, the Kazakhstan Senate has recently passed a bill to regulate crypto asset service providers.