The head of Rosfinmonitoring, Yuri Chikhanchin, said that despite the ban on cryptocurrency payments in the Russian Federation itself, it is possible to use them between countries.
Despite the ban on the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in Russia, businesses can conduct such transactions at the state level. This opinion was expressed by the head of Rosfinmonitoring Yury Chikhanchin at the “government hour”, Parliamentary newspaper writes.
According to Chikhanchin, it is possible to use cryptocurrency for international transactions, but on condition that the entire transaction chain is “controlled”. What exactly is meant by control, Chikhanchin did not specify. “If the chain is controlled, then [the use of cryptocurrencies as payment] is allowed,” he said.
At the same time, Chikhanchin claims that the department has already launched a “software product” that allows you to go to both sides of the transaction.
“The results are good. There are actually revealed criminal cases,” Chikhanchin said.
Chikhanchin also did not specify what kind of criminal cases he was talking about. Recall that the department has long been trying to develop a tool for tracking cryptocurrency transactions. For example, in August 2021, Rosfinmonitoring ordered a “monitoring and analysis module for cryptocurrency transactions using bitcoin” from RCO controlled by Sberbank. The department allocated almost ₽15 million for the development.
At the same time, back in February 2021, at a meeting with Vladimir Putin, the head of Rosfinmonitoring presented the Transparent Blockchain mechanism. As the head of the department said then, the development will help to see all the movements with the cryptocurrency and “reveal” the true beneficiary.
Whether it was possible to realize the declared, is still unknown. However, the task of tracking transactions through bitcoin mixers (programs that obfuscate the tracking of transfers) was not in the terms of reference of Rosfinmonitoring for RCO.