Business Ombudsman Boris Titov, who nominated himself for the Russian presidential elections in 2018, said that he would legalize Bitcoin in Russia if he wins

Russian presidential candidate and business ombudsman Boris Titov said that he would legalize Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies if he wins the elections. He also told reporters that his team abandoned the idea of ​​​​creating a national cryptocurrency.

“Three months ago we were thinking about creating a national cryptocurrency. But things are changing quickly, and we abandoned this idea. After all, the goal of cryptocurrency is to reduce costs. And we realized that there is no need for this, it is more important to regulate what exists,” said Titov.

He said that after the legalization of cryptocurrencies, Russians will be able to store them in banks and on crypto wallets, but it will be possible to exchange and pay for them only for external transactions.

“In the domestic Russian market, say, for a sandwich, it will not be possible to pay with cryptocurrency. For now, we are holding the ruble,” noted Boris Titov.

The business ombudsman emphasized that it is extremely important for the Russian digital economy to develop blockchain, cryptocurrencies and the IT sector.

“Soon the world will be different. Slot machines and machines will pay for a person with his cryptocurrencies. Soon we will be living in an economic cemetery. The price of oil will fall and inflation will rise. Because we need to develop the economy,” this is how Titov argues his position in relation to cryptocurrencies.

Titov also added that Russian legislation is ready to regulate the market for initial coin offerings.

“We can give access to ICOs. We have a legislative system ready that can protect investors. Plus, we have an ICO generator,” he said.

Recall that in early November, Titov prepared proposals for regulating cryptocurrencies in the country. Although Boris Titov argues that taxation of the cryptocurrency market should not be a priority for legislators.

In this case, the position of the presidential candidate differs from the position of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, which proposed introducing criminal liability for organizing cryptocurrency payments on a particularly large scale. Corresponding amendments can be made to the code of administrative offenses, the law “On the Central Bank” and the criminal code. This was stated by the head of the department, Alexey Moiseev.

According to him, the Ministry of Finance equates cryptocurrency to money surrogates, therefore payments in it are contrary to the Constitution. “The only means of payment on the territory of the Russian Federation is the ruble.. It follows from this that you cannot pay in anything else - neither in Monopoly tokens, nor money from World of Tanks, nor any other receipts, subscriptions, notes,” says Moiseev.

According to http://probitcoin.ru