While we are not sure Bitcoin could ever be listed among the world’s greatest conspiracy theories, the Russian lawmakers still seem to be working towards enlisting it as one.
Like if the proposed restriction was not good enough, a Russian lawmaker further classified Bitcoin as a tool of the CIA, created only for the purpose of perplexing world peace through terrorism and revolutions. The poorly-researched comments came from Andrei Svintsov, an MP from Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party, following a debate held to decide the future course of Bitcoin in the country.
“All these cryptocurrencies [were] created by US intelligence agencies just to finance terrorism and revolutions,” the politician told REGNUM, a Russian news agency.
This is indeed not the first time when a politician has exhibited an inflexible mindset towards emerging payment technologies. Earlier, and even nowadays, Bitcoin is continuously targeted by individuals for sponsoring a series of crimes related to drug trafficking and terrorism. Just a few weeks back, a Singapore-based web intelligence firm also claimed that the digital currency could be used by Islamic terror outfit ISIS for fundraising (so could USD, RUB, CHF and EUR).
The comments from Svintsov however seems like a simple excuse to provoke an already-damaged US-Russia relationship. And in pursuance of connecting distant dots, the lawmaker is simply cooking up stories regarding Bitcoin and its “harmful” impacts on Russian society, while at the same time attempting to corner the United States, a country which itself, on record, was against Bitcoin until it was educated about it. What Svintsov needed to do before passing unfair theories was to just study the whole purpose behind Bitcoin.
Why I used the word hypocrisy for Russia is due to their double standards, that how they are simply using Bitcoin for their own intellectual terrorism. They had planned to ban Bitcoin by the upcoming Spring, but later decided to revise the bill reportedly in the wake of the nation’s economic collapse. And just at the start of this year, Russia’s media watchdogs blocked access to a number of Bitcoin-based websites as well.
Even though, I believe there is a notable section in Russia that at least supports that there should be no criminal penalties for using Bitcoins. For instance, the chairman of the State Duma committee on Financial Markets has openly opposed the unnecessary restrictions on the use of digital currencies.
Every technology comes with its bane, but it doesn’t mean they are meant to be downrightly rejected. We expect Russian lawmakers to see through the lens of innovation, and create a fair and better Bitcoin law for their people.
