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Cryptocurrency transactions that involve crypto to fiat conversion will be monitored by Russia’s anti-money laundering body. This was revealed by Herman Neglyad, deputy of Rosfinmonitoring during a State Duma Committee meeting on financial markets.
Rosfinmonitoring has already sought cooperation from banks to help the anti-money laundering body monitor crypto transactions in exchanges. “Banks have already begun to pay attention to exchange operations, that is, when they see that an operation has come after the exchange of virtual assets for hard currency, they have already begun to evaluate them and actually inform us about these operations,” said Neglyad, according to Bitcoin.com.
Neglyad added that the organization is also working with the Russian central bank to come up with a “separate code, distinguishing a separate group of such suspicious transactions.” Rosfinmonitoring will also orient traditional banking institutions on how to spot these transactions.
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his concern over illegal activities on cross-border transfers using cryptos. He said that the General Prosecutor’s Office should take measures to strengthen financial monitoring to prevent the illegal use of cryptocurrencies.
“There is one more point — quite new, but essential: to take additional measures to suppress the illegal cross-border movement of funds of digital financial assets,” Putin said during the meeting with the attorney general’s office. “Criminal elements are increasingly using these digital financial assets, and this certainly needs to be paid close attention to with colleagues from other departments, including Financial Monitoring.”
It is yet unclear if Neglyad’s remarks on monitoring crypto to ruble transactions are linked to Puttin’s earlier comments. According to a report by the Russian news site, Regnum, the State Duma Committee meeting was held “in preparation for the report of the Russian government.”
Russia has introduced various measures to regulate the country’s crypto industry. In September 2020, the government proposed fines of up to 30 percent of unreported crypto holdings above a certain threshold.
“In particular, any person (natural or legal) who has received digital currency or digital rights of more than 100,000 rubles [$1,280] in a calendar year is obliged to inform the tax authority and submit an annual report on transactions with such assets and the balances of these assets,” Kommersant reported.
In December 2020, Putin also ordered government officials to disclose their crypto holdings by June 2021. “The name of the digital financial asset indicated (if it cannot be determined, the type and scope of rights certified by the issuer of the digital financial asset are indicated),” the order stated. “Additionally, workers can also report digital rights, including both digital financial assets and other digital rights.”
