Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Public Chamber’s Commission for Public Expertise of Bills and Other Regulatory Acts in Russia, proposed imprisonment for illegal cryptocurrency transfers.
The official lamented the growing number of digital asset donations to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and proposed combating such transactions using traditional methods. He recalled that the Soviet Union’s Criminal Code contained an article penalizing violations of currency transaction regulations. Yevhen proposed reinstating it in the current Criminal Code, thereby introducing criminal liability for the illegal transfer of digital assets and foreign currencies.
Evgeny Masharov
Currently, in Russia, virtual currencies are prohibited from being used solely as a means of payment, so tokens and coins can be sent to anyone except when used as payment for goods and services. Therefore, before jailing Russians for transferring cryptocurrency, parliamentarians will have to approve a list of illegal transactions. Furthermore, violators will be unable to be identified if they use, for example, mixers.
Masharov acknowledged that his initiative is unlikely to be supported by Russian cryptocurrency owners who champion a free market. However, he believes critics should be ignored, citing the need to tighten the screws as the prevalence of criminal activity in the digital asset industry. However, statistics suggest Evgeny is exaggerating the problem. According to TRM Labs, less than 1% of cryptocurrency transfers are cryptocurrency-based. accounts The share of illegal transactions is higher, and banks are used to launder many times more money than digital assets.