Following in Alexander Lukashenko’s footsteps: Tatarstan plans to adopt Belarus’ experience

Three crypto industry centres in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on 8 August that will allow exchange trading and cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency in the country from 1 September 2024 within experimental legal regimes (ELR). It was announced earlier that at least two crypto exchanges will be created in the country to support foreign economic activity. They want to use the base of the St Petersburg Currency Exchange for one of them. The second one will be in Moscow, but it has not yet been decided whether it will operate on the basis of the Moscow Exchange or separately.

Moscow Exchange, however, has already announced that it does not plan to launch cryptocurrency trading, or issue its own digital financial assets (DFA). This was reported to journalists by Nikolay Trunichkin, head of digital projects and products at Moscow Exchange. Saint Petersburg Exchange, on the contrary, plans to take an active part in the experiment in conducting cryptocurrency trading, a representative of this trading platform said. Tatarstan has also joined the race for the right to open the first Russian cryptocurrency exchange.

Tatarstan today is the best region for opening the first crypto exchange, State Duma deputy from Tatarstan Ayrat Farrakhov told Realnoe Vremya earlier.

This decision is a circumvention of sanctions

The creation of crypto exchanges “is still in the grey zone, and is neither permitted nor prohibited,” said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov in August. He promised that a corresponding legislative decision would be prepared in the fall. The need for it is caused by international sanctions. “We see the problems that are created for us, including those related to settlements. The use of digital financial instruments in cross-border settlements largely reduces the pressure within the framework of this restriction,” the finance minister said.

“We are presenting the project of the national crypto exchange Tat Connect, it can be built on the basis of products that we implement and sell around the world. We are actively interacting with the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications and are discussing possible approaches to implementation in a working manner,” he said. “As a blockchain developer company, we are very pleased to be in Tatarstan, because no region supports our activities.”

They say behind the scenes that crypto exchanges will appear in Moscow and St Petersburg, but unfortunately, there is no information yet on what they should look like, Khamidullov confirmed.

“We see the implementation of the project to create a crypto exchange in Tatarstan in two stages — the first stage is planned to implement operations for legal entities to conduct cross-border payments and interact with international companies, and the second stage is the implementation of a block for individuals,” he said.

“In two weeks, I am going to Belarus to our colleagues to adopt the format of regulation and construction of a cryptocurrency exchange, they are our neighbours — the very first to legalise cryptocurrency among all the CIS countries, so I think that we will definitely take a closer look at them,” the speaker said.

Technologically, Tatarstan is already ready

Cryptocurrency in Russia is a new direction that has not yet been tested in the conditions of our country. Tatarstan plans to very actively join the implementation of the experimental legal regime, the parameters of which should be determined by the Central Bank in the near future, founder of the crypto polygon in Tatarstan Yakov Tenilin told Realnoe Vremya

“We are currently preparing a comprehensive request to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation with representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development of Tatarstan so that the republic is actively involved in the issue of forming the EPR,” Tenilin said. “In this document, we will definitely indicate both the crypto exchange and the possibility of conducting exchange transactions within the framework of the experimental legal regime, as well as the use of cryptocurrency in foreign economic activity — that is, exactly what is recorded in the new legislation.”

Technologically, Tatarstan, in his opinion, is ready to participate in the experiment, and all the solutions that can be launched within the EPR already exist, and they work well. “They have not been launched within the Russian Federation and are being tested in those countries of the world where cryptocurrency transactions are permitted,” the founder of the crypto polygon clarified.

According to him, there is indeed a lot of different information in the media now about the fact that a crypto exchange may appear on the basis of the Moscow and St Petersburg exchanges, the Central Bank has also stated that it wants to create its own exchange. But no one has any precise information yet, and today it is impossible to name a list of potential official crypto exchanges in Russia. “But we are primarily focused on the establishment of an official exchange in Tatarstan,” he emphasised.

“We proposed legalising cryptocurrency exchange in Russia two years ago. “As you know, this is a fairly anonymous environment, and it is difficult to track transactions there. On official platforms, when an investor enters the ruble, you can see how much he deposited, how much he withdrew, and whether he received income. And if there was income, there should be taxation,” he explained.

It is not yet clear whether Russia will follow in the footsteps of Belarus, perhaps our country will have some other path, but in any case, we take a lot from Belarus, because they are now ahead of us in this regard, Tenilin summed up.