Vladimir Putin signs order requiring Russian public officials to disclose crypto holdings

Russian public officials will now be required to declare their cryptocurrency holdings, according to a new order President Vladimir Putin signed on Thursday.

According to the document, any public official or individual who wants to work in government must disclose their digital assets, as well as those of their spouse and children. They have until June 30, 2021, to declare the types of quantities of each of those held assets. Details of the presidential order were reported by CoinDesk.

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The country's Ministry of Finance recently proposed a series of amendments on digital assets that would result in fines for public officials if they fail to declare annual digital currency transactions above 600,000 roubles, as reported by Russian news outlet RBK.

However, the Russian parliament, the State Duma, relaxed these rules slightly in November, saying a failure to declare crypto holdings on time will incur a fine of 50,000. If holdings are not reported at all, a fine of 10% of the sum of all carried out transactions will be imposed.

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Saniya More (pronounced: Saan-ya Mo-ray) is a quadrilingual journalist at The Block. She got her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and did her undergraduate degree at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Her work has appeared in CBS News, Bangkok Post, Thai Enquirer, Globalists, Byline Times and other publications. When she’s not chasing a story, you will most likely find her biking, tweeting, taking photos or creating Spotify playlists for every occasion.