In the past couple of months, several reports have come up that suggest the anti-bitcoin stance of Russia – a draft bill seeking bitcoin ban; bitcoin users likely to be fined 0.5 million rubles or jailed for 2 years and recently Russian Presidential Advisor saying that accepting bitcoin is a crime.

However, the country seems to be interested in bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology. According to latest reports, at a meeting with representatives of commercial banks, Olga Skorobogatova, the deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia said that the blockchain technology will be used in the global financial sector in the next two years.

Rambler News Service, a Russian news agency, reported that Skorobogatova said:

"In 2017-2018, we will see real examples of the use of this system [blockchain technology]…As a closed system, I think, [blockchain technology] is the future, and we need to prepare for it".

However, this is not the first time that the country is seen appreciating the technology. Recent it was reported that while recently appointed Internet advisor to Russian president Vladimir Putin German Klimenko said that accepting bitcoin is a crime, he believed the blockchain technology to be ‘amazingly interesting’.

“I expect lots of experiments with the blockchain technology. They’ll attempt various issuances and novelties at different exchange. They’ll be watching, as replacing software right away is shifting to a completely different reality. We cannot even imagine how different it will be. When every ruble has a recorded owner, it will become a truly different world,” he added.