It added that Russian law stipulates that the rouble is the sole official currency and that introducing any other monetary units or substitutes was illegal.
But I don't think there's ever been much enforcement. Similar to China, Russia seems more interested in restricting information about and access to cryptocurrencies.
At least China in most occasions is backing up its words with actions (although it being negative for crypto), which is something we haven't really seen happen in Russia. We have seen nothing from Russia other than small scale power play affecting certain sites here and there. It's clear that they just don't know what to do, and don't even bother taking the necessary steps against crypto like how China in a fairly short period of time cleaned house. I rather see them completely prohibit crypto in every shape and form, than seeing this ping pong show continue for plenty of more years. Realistically, I don't think much will change in Russia in the forthcoming years, especially because of the fact that the incentive just isn't there. I am even of believe that Russia may already be comfortable with how things are right now.
Exactly. That's why I don't think that Russia will really accept crypto's in general. It's been what more than a year since this back-and-forth discussions about "accepting" or "regulating" crypto's but up to now, we have seen anything concrete coming from them. And the worst part is that they keeps on contradicting themselves. Although there are a lot of influential Russian's in the cryptosphere, but I don't think that will be enough to sway the government of Putin to be friendly. Why do the Supreme Courts needs to step up and meddle with the issue by the way? Is the Russia authorities or like the censorship committee or some regulatory body cannot make the final decision here? For me the end result will be the same.