The Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina has admitted that the Bank of Russia might have taken a bit too tough a stance on digital assets and should look to reconsider that.
On Thursday, the Russian State Duma re-appointed Nabiullina as Bank of Russia governor, marking the third time for her to take the post since started serving in the position back in 2013.
At the official Duma session, Nabiullina talked about many measures that Russia has been taking and is planning to adopt in order to help the government mitigate the impact of massive Western sanctions against the Russian economy.
As part of the governmentâs measures to maintain the economy, the Bank of Russia is working to bring the topic of digital financial assets to a âworking state,â Nabiullina stated.
She emphasized that Russia adopted its crypto-related law, âOn Digital Financial Assets,â or DFA, more than a year ago, but it didnât help the country get many âreal projects.â The Russian government is yet to pass another legal initiative, the bill âOn Digital Currency,â which is designed to clarify regulations around crypto trading and mining.
Nabiullina hinted that the Bank of Russia may reconsider its tough stance on the digital asset industry, stating:
âWe need to see if we are too tight here and we need to ease up these projects on digital financial assets. This can become another channel for attracting funding through digital financial assets.â
Nabiullina stressed that the government should focus on encouraging the development of digital asset initiatives that have a âresponsible personâ issuing them, in contrast to private cryptocurrencies which donât have a responsible party.
She noted that the Bank of Russia continues to discuss crypto mining-related issues with the government to reach a systematic decision. She added crypto mining-related decisions are not a direct competence of the central bank.
In her testimony, Nabiullina also traditionally talked about Russiaâs central bank digital currency (CBDC), claiming that the Bank of Russia expects to conduct the first real settlements with the digital ruble already in 2023.
âWe are certainly looking to implement it [the digital ruble] for international settlements,â Nabiullina said, adding that Russia is among the worldâs leaders in terms of the CBDC development following countries like China.
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As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Bank of Russia has taken a hostile stance on Bitcoin (BTC) as well as the broader digital asset industry. The central bank not only barred local banks from offering Bitcoin investment but also was apparently preventing the countryâs largest bank Sberbank from launching its own digital asset issuance platform.