Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Demands Legalization of Crypto Mining

Key Insights:

• Russian Deputy Energy Minister wants to legalize crypto mining.
• He stated location discovery for mining should be set at the regional level.
• Mining must also be regulated along with regional development plans.

As the Russia and Ukraine war has continued for more than a month, the dynamics of the Russian economy have shifted dramatically.

However, crypto was seen as one way to prevent the sanctions, but even they were banned soon after. So is this the next escape method by the Russian Government?

Russia Needs Crypto Mining

As reported by a Russian news agency, Tass, Evgeny Grabchak, the Russian Deputy Minister of Energy, wants to make crypto mining legal. According to him, the existing legal vacuum when it comes to the mining of cryptocurrencies is not beneficial to the people.

He instead recommended organizing a set of clear rules and regulating this field. Iterating on the same, Grabchak said,

“This legal vacuum needs to be [eliminated] as soon as possible. If we want somehow to get along with this activity, and we have no other options in the current reality, we must introduce legal regulation, adding the concept of mining to the regulatory framework.”

Adding on to this, Grabchak stated that instead of determining mining sites at a federal level, it would be better if the same was done on a more regional level. This would make the entire process more efficient.

This is an interesting development in the ongoing crypto debate in Russia since the central bank first decided to ban cryptos and mining. But the resistance from the Government and the people resulted in crypto being approved in the country.

So Why Legalize Mining Now?

A huge reason behind this could be the sanctions mentioned above against the country. Since many countries announced these sanctions, the value of the Ruble decreased significantly.

And with the blocking of crypto accounts of sanctioned individuals, Russians might begin banking on the opportunity of mining. 

Due to the decentralized nature of crypto, mining cannot be controlled. If Russians can mine cryptos, it will allow them to hold a portion of cryptocurrencies.

And since the price of the crypto will remain the same, they will have the same amount of money before and after it is exchanged into fiat.