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If BTC-e’s move this morning to officially halt Ruble deposits and withdrawals was any hint, it now seems a sure thing that the Russian Central Bank is quite simply saying no to bitcoin and other digital currencies.
“The monitoring of the use of virtual currencies shows an increasing interest in them, including for the purpose of money laundering, profit obtained through illegal means,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said following a meeting with the central bank of Russia. “Russia’s official currency is the ruble. The introduction of other types of currencies and the issue of money surrogates are banned.”
Article 27 of Russian Federal Law forbids anything other than the Ruble to be used as a currency, and as such, this puts users of bitcoin et al in a bit of a rut.
According to BitLegal.io, Russia joins only two other nations who have a hostile stance toward this emerging form of money: Thailand and Iceland.
It’s unclear what happens from here, but certainly, anyone who continues to use digital currency in the country is breaking the law.
