In an article published on Kommersant, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin has shared his views on the ways and methods of struggle against extremism in Russia.
Bastrykin talks about a “hybrid war” unleashed by the US and its allies on various fronts such as political, economic, legal and others.
“The last decade of Russia, and a number of other countries, live in so-called hybrid war unleashed by the US and its allies. This war is being waged on different fronts - political, economic, informational, and legal. And in recent years, it has moved into a qualitatively new phase of open confrontation”, he said (according to Google translated version of the article).
He also turned his attention towards terrorist organizations "Islamic State", "Dzhebhat en-Nusra", "Al-Qaeda" and others that are involved in armed conflict in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.
“More than a thousand Russian citizens have left the Syrian Arab Republic to participate in the armed conflict. For these individuals have already filed 469 criminal cases. Of these, 135 people were killed in clashes with Syrian government troops”, he said.
To that end, Bastrykin pointed out the potential of virtual currencies to be used for terrorism financing purposes. He goes on to say that widespread use of these currencies can threaten financial stability of the country.
“As experience has shown, to the financing of terrorism is often used virtual cryptocurrency that has no central issuer, single point of control over transactions and payments is characterized by anonymity. In addition, as a result of the wide spread of these currencies can displace from the market of legal money, threatening the financial stability of the state. It is therefore suggested to introduce criminal liability for illegal issuance and turnover cryptocurrency and other money substitutes”, he said.
Bastrykin’s negative opinion on cryptocurrencies, however, is not new. Earlier in January this year, he noted that the circulation volume of monetary surrogates in Russia has already reached 1% of GDP, and warned that if this figure rises by 10% or more, cryptocurrencies could become a “real danger” to the financial stability of the state.
Russian government has been forging ahead in its efforts to criminalize the use of bitcoins in the country. Russian Deputy Minister of Finance confirmed last month that the draft law criminalizing circulation of bitcoin in Russia will be passed to the State Duma during the current session.
