The Russian Ministry of Finance has stated that they are ready to legalize using stablecoins as payment for transactions in the country. This was mentioned by Ivan Chebeskov, the director of the Department of Financial Policy in the Russian Ministry of Finance (MinFin).

The ministry believes cryptocurrency can be readily adopted as legal tender and can be used to set the framework of a new financial system devoid of European centralization. However, the ministry still has concerns over the quality of this new financial system and if it will be better than the current one.

Chebeskov made this statement at a panel during Russian Creative Week. The topic of discussion deliberated on by the panel was “The influence of the Web3 – New era of the internet of trust?”. Chebeskov stated that the Russian Ministry of Finance approaches every issue from the view of Russian entrepreneurs and remarked that they will support any such initiatives that will allow businesses and companies to settle and invest in a new way that cuts costs, limits risks, and works better than the previous financial tools.

He also said that digital assets and Blockchain, in general, can provide a new opportunity to lay down the framework for a new financial system but that we cannot be completely sure that the new system will be more stable than the current one.

The Russian Finance Ministry has long taken a positive position in efforts to legalize cryptocurrency in Russia. Earlier this year, they submitted a proposal on digital currency. This proposal was engineered to fill the gaps in the law on Digital Financial Assets which had already gone into legality in January 2021.

However, Russia’s central bank has taken a negative stance on cryptocurrency. While the Bank has developed a digital Ruble, they have still proposed a blanket ban on all crypto-related activities in the country.

It only recently softened its stance with the Bank’s Governor, Elvira Nabiullina saying that the bank could agree to pay off international settlements with small-scale cryptocurrency in the wake of the economic sanctions against Russia because of their war effort against Ukraine.

Featured image source: Asia Times