The Russian Ministry of Justice has once again disagreed to a draft bill seeking to ban bitcoin which was put forth by the Finance Ministry. The bill is the second version of the draft and is due to be entered into the State Duma – the Russian Parliament’s lower chamber.
In the first draft, the Ministry of Justice disagreed with some of the wordings where money substitutes or “surrogates” as prescribed in the bill had lack of precise definition. It stated that the term is frequently associated with bitcoin and virtual currencies and used to describe bitcoin by Russian authorities who have taken a forceful stance against the cryptocurrency.
According to Crypto Coins News, the first draft was previously questioned by the Ministry of Justice highlighting the need to study criminal liability for individuals. The bill proposed that, the use of virtual currencies including bitcoin be deemed a criminal offense, with imprisonment of up to 7 years, including large fines.
The Ministry believes that, the degree of public danger by the act implicated by Finance Ministry that money surrogates or bitcoin “is questionable”. Also, the source revealed that, doubts surrounding the validity of the Finance Ministry’s narrative of Bitcoin being “dangerous” to the public are shared by the Ministry of Justice General Prosecutor’s office.
In a report by RNS news agency, the Finance Ministry turned in the second draft without addressing the scrutiny by the Ministry of Justice in the first draft. Despite the disagreement by the Ministry of Justice, the draft bill will still be presented to the State Duma.
Recently, the draft law by Russian Ministry of Finance that proposed a ban on bitcoin has seen criticism from reviewers postponing its entry into the State Duma.
