Russia will amend its legislation to allow confiscation of digital assets used for illegal activity.
The new amendments are now being drafted, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov said quoted by TASS. Work is now underway to amend the criminal and criminal procedure laws.
This change will hardly affect the market, says Vladislav Bulochnikov, founder of the Chatex p2p cryptocurrency platform — primarily because it is quite problematic to confiscate cryptocurrency gained by criminal means.
“That would require a number of procedural measures, but such steps are hardly feasible. No agency empowered to confiscate money laundering proceeds will have access to the suspect’s digital wallet unless the owner gives them their wallet credentials and the backup phrase,” the expert explained to Invest Foresight.
However, the government will enhance scrutiny of crypto exchanges; but Russia has been tightening crypto regulations for a long time, Vladislav Bulochnikov adds. Exchanges will be able to come to an agreement with the state though, because it is an infrastructural matter that helps interregional businesses cut financial costs. Some transactions are much easier to perform in cryptocurrency. Exchanges will continue to work, but they will cooperate more closely with the state.