The news is rolling on the social networks at the speed of light, relaunched by all the major sites in the sector, let's say, however, that at first glance it seems that the thing is unlikely and that it could easily be the classic FUD; in practice it would seem that Russia is considering banning the use of cryptocurrencies for the purchase of goods and services. The news was circulated today by Izvestia (a well-known Russian newspaper founded in the early 1900s in St. Petersburg) but the article mentions anonymous sources that would have direct contacts with the Russian government, so, as we never fail to remember, in the absence of official sources the news built around anonymous statements should always be taken with pliers. Izvestia has endeavored to give a minimum of authority and credibility to what was reported by quoting Alexey Yakovlev, deputy head of the banking regulation department of the Ministry of Finance, who at a recent conference stated that he did not see any solid basis for the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment; clearly, however, from here to affirming that the Russian government wants to prohibit its use for this purpose there is little to go by.

The same article points out the authorities' concerns regarding the illicit use of cryptocurrencies and the statements of the central bank which has repeatedly stated that these instruments are nowhere near comparable to FIAT currency; the same identical things are continuously declared by all the authorities of almost any country in the world, this does not prove that there is the will to forbid its use also because, as we well know, writing a law in this sense would substantially mean producing a regulation inapplicable. For heaven's sake, it would not be the first time that governments write laws that are impossible to apply, just think about online piracy in this regard which, in spite of the ton of laws written to date, is a phenomenon that has only ever continued to grow in last decades, since the closure of Napster which, in hindsight, has served substantially nothing. Beyond this, to bring out reasonable doubts about the reliability of this news is the fact that the Russians would have no interest in producing such a law, not to mention the fact that Putin is already from 2017 asking for a law to be produced that allows for regulation the blockchain industry activity in the country; true, on the other hand, that Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Russian central bank, has repeatedly expressed her perplexity on these instruments, both technologically and politically, however she has never taken positions of clear closure to this market. In short, it is not possible to exclude at present that actually the Russian government is working on a crackdown against cryptocurrencies, but it is not even possible to put one's hand on fire in relation to the authenticity of this news; waiting for confirmations, or denials, official, for now we can only limit ourselves to invite you to take a lot with pliers how much in the last hours is circulating on the social and on the major sites of the sector.