The City Council of St. Petersburg, Russia issued a ruling stating that they are officially recognizing digital assets. This happens a week after Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister, Denis Manturov, stated that they will surely legalize crypto as a mode of payment.
Russian Tribunal Already Accepts Cryptocurrency
Piron and Yevgeny Prigozhin were put in prison by St. Petersburg Pyotr City Court for swindling around $1 million in crypto assets from another guy.
As per RBC, a crypto news site, the St. Petersburg City Court accepts Bitcoins as payment during the hearing. According to authorities, the judgment is a first since the Russian authorities are still yet to deliberate on the legal standing of cryptos.
The criminal, who pretends to be a legal police agent, intimidates Shemet with the federal case in an attempt to steal money in 2018. After arranging a fictitious arrest, the pair were able to extort 5 million rubles as well as 55 million rubles in crypto assets from Shemet.
One of the offenders, Pyotr Piron, reveals himself to the sufferer. G.A. Shemet entered the Federal Security Service FSB four years ago.
Piron is seeking the assistance of a former staff member of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yevgeny Prigozhin. That’s because Shemet didn’t believe Piron was a security officer and fails to grant him the cash that he is asking for.
There was a notification on Shemet that they would conduct a probe into illegal crypto circulation. In the warmer months of 2018, they were able to organize a phony arrest of the crypto holder. They push him to surrender his fiat cash and crypto stash under the penalty of punishment. They did not consider the coerced crypto in the first decision of the municipal court.
According to the judgment, Bitcoin is not a method of the transaction on Russian Federation territory. Thus, they cannot consider it as an element of civil rights and a subject of criminality.
A judicial court determines that they can still use cryptocurrency as a form of payment amid an appeal. Authorities can then refer the matter back to the first instance court. The municipal court issues a new judgment that includes the bitcoin payment. However, they will be leaving the offenders’ sentences intact.
Why is It Significant?
This lawsuit arises after a trial court in St. Petersburg allows law police to recover illegal Bitcoin previously this month in a separate criminal proceeding. There was a confiscation of a criminal’s two dozen crypto wallets. Hence, this includes 1 billion rubles in Ethereum which authorities are requesting.
Russia establishes a new crypto regulation that is just not as stringent as the earlier restriction. This imposes stringent limits on the utilization of cryptocurrencies as a method of payment.
Denis Manturov also states that sooner or later they will approve cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. Moreover, it only means that the state and central bank are moving nearer to a resolution.
Moscow also indicated its aim to launch a central bank digital currency while recently discouraging the adoption of private coins.
Per the prosecutor’s department in St. Petersburg, the ruling will establish a framework for major choices by the Russian government. This will be for the legality of Bitcoin and various digital assets.
