Russian financial surveillance agency, Rosfinmonitoring, is going to monitor the bitcoin-to-fiat transactions closely, its Deputy Head, German Neglyad revealed on Wednesday during a hearing on financial markets at the national parliament.
The agency, which is responsible for tracking illegal money, curbing money laundering and criminal financings, grew its interest in cryptocurrencies as they are now being used for terror financing.
“Banks are already taking notice of such exchange operations, meaning that when they see the money coming in after trading virtual assets for hard currency, they calculate the value and notify us,” Neglyad said in parliament, according to news agency Regnum.
However, it is not clear how the lenders in the country are specifying cryptocurrency transactions.
Additionally, Neglyad elaborated that the agency is already working with the country’s central bank and will introduce “a separate code, distinguishing a separate group of such suspicious transactions, that is, to further orient traditional financial institutions to this problem.”
Crypto Surveillance State
Rosfinmonitoring’s interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is not new. The agency last August said that it was developing a blockchain transaction tracing tool that would have revealed the end-beneficiaries of crypto transactions.
Overall, Russia is trying to build a controlled atmosphere for cryptocurrencies. The country sees Bitcoin as property but is bringing heavy restrictions for digital currency usage. Multiple bills were pushed by ministries earlier for bringing laws to limit retail purchases of cryptocurrencies.
An order by President Vladimir Putin last December mandated all public officials to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings. However, a later order by the country’s Ministry of Labour banned civil servants from owning cryptocurrencies.
(Photo: pixabay)
