by Rushali 
In January, Russia has adopted its cryptocurrency law but didn’t provide answers to questions of the public that how will they deal with their crypto holdings.
In Dec 2020, Vladimir Putin Russia’s President signed a decree saying that some public officials have to disclose their crypto holdings by June 30.
The decree was part of the country’s law “On Digital Financial Assets,” or DFA, which was made effective on Jan. 1.
According to the Decree, Russian officials who want to hold any public office have to disclose their digital assets, as well as those of their spouse and children. This legislation is passed to ensure that the government is as compliant with the local financial declaration rules as ordinary citizens already are.
On Dec 28, 2020, the Russian Ministry of Labour and Social Protection published an informational letter that says that some officials have to liquidate their digital assets by April 2021.
This restriction specifically refers to individuals listed in Part 1 of Article 2 of the Russian Federal Law from May 7, 2013, No. 79-FL, which prohibits certain categories of persons to store their funds abroad as well as use foreign financial instruments. The list includes a broad number of key public positions, including running and deputy positions in public office, the board of directors of the Russian central bank, public corporations owned by the Russian Federation, heads of district administrations, and several others.
The government has several different rules for different people in the case of cryptocurrencies and that is the reason for the lack of clarity.
Artem Grigoriev, head of the research lab at the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain, has said:
“There is still no law on the circulation of cryptocurrency. The authors of this initiative probably have their own vision about the implementation of these rules. Practice will show.”
