The country's authorities are going to develop legal ways to confiscate compromised virtual assets. This is one of the steps aimed at fighting cybercrime.
Corresponding changes in the legislation should appear no later than December 2021. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Customs Service, the FSB, and the Supreme Court will take part in the preparation.
This is the first positive news given the unresolved issue of cryptocurrency regulation, postponed by the Russian parliament. Law enforcers have plans to develop effective legislation that allows to unambiguously interpret the fate of any criminal property, even when it is virtual.
What are pitfalls for lawmakers?
There is no legal definition of cryptocurrencies in Russia. Therefore, it is quite difficult to confiscate something that is not considered a product and is not the equivalent of cash.
A problem can also be withdrawing coins from a wallet protected by a personal user password and a cryptographic key. The authorities plan to bypass it by actively working with exchanges. Freezing accounts and withdrawing funds will help to achieve the planned result.
What do law enforcement officials plan?
All withdrawn tokens can be converted into a single currency in the future. It can be a state stablecoin, where the withdrawn funds stored. True, it is still far from its development.
RACIB information about the launch of the crypto ruble in mid-2019 has not been confirmed. The Russian Central Bank does not comment on it. We will monitor the situation and keep you informed.
