Russian Bill Draft Requires Gov’t Officials To Declare Crypto Assets

In a recent interview with the Russian news outlet Gazeta, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov stated that the current draft of Russian cryptocurrency bill requires government officials to declare their cryptocurrency investments.

The draft is currently under review by the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank with the final version of the bill slated to be released no later than July 1, 2018, according to Forklog.

As of now, government officials are not required to declare their cryptocurrency assets because of a lack of proper definition and regulation of cryptocurrencies, according to a recent announcement by the Russian Ministry of Labor.

Thus, Aksakov continues in his interview with Gazeta, if the new bill does define cryptocurrencies as property, “all property owned by a State Duma MP has to be declared, [including cryptocurrency].”

Russia is not the only country to consider making it a legal requirement for government officials to declare their cryptocurrency holdings.

Earlier this week, South Korean National Assembly’s Administrative and Security Committee has reportedly introduced a bill to require officials to declare their crypto assets. This has happened after some employees of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) were accused of insider trading of Bitcoin.