Russia’s newly elected prime minister Mishustin planning to go towards the digital economy

As I always say, technological progress is one of the rarest forces that don’t take political borders and limitations into any account. It can pretty easily occur both in the US and Uganda - although with different scale and results.

That’s actually the main difference: some countries, that are more technologically developed, have much better grounds for the progress to thrive, while the not-so-savvy ones are more crippled in this sense - producing far fewer results. But it’s certainly not to say that they do not have any potential.

This introduction can be fitted to many countries across the world: it could equally work for Nauru and Uruguay. But it also works for Norway and other developed countries. For instance, you can click to check Norwegian online casinos that have used some of the most recent technologies such as cryptocurrencies and other alternative platforms to improve the customer experience while playing online games.

Again, technological advancements can occur everywhere. And it can certainly occur in Russia as well. To refrain from the political assessments of its regime or current situation, Russia isn’t exactly considered the most technologically advanced country in the world.

Despite having the richest storage of natural resources, the biggest territory, and some of the most diligent people, this country is still lagging behind some of its counterparts, for example, China.

Mishustin to change the current?

But things might be on the verge of change. This week, a headline broke out regarding the resignation of the whole government with the lead of Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev announced this decision after the country’s President Vladimir Putin made some regards to the necessity of fundamental changes to the Russian constitution.

Not even a day had passed after the famous resignation that the next prime minister of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Mishustin, announced that one of his main priorities would be to set course towards a different course than the previous administration was pursuing.

The news about the changes was reported by the domestic outlet RIA Novosti on 16 of January, and among other things, one of Mishustin’s main priorities turned out to be the development of a national digital economy system, as well as incorporating some of the most recent information technologies in various national industries. He also added that the Russian state has to “become a digital platform” that is created solely for people.

For some, this news is quite surprising, considering how the country has been treating blockchain and its cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. Yet others find it somewhat logical that the new government has charted a course towards digitalization.

Last year’s crypto achievements in Russia

Well, for one thing, blockchain has achieved some favorable popularity during recent years in Russia. Some of the big and influential companies, including ones that are nationalized - that is, operated by the state - have already begun incorporating blockchain into various facets of their companies.

For example, in November 2019, Sberbank, which is Russia’s biggest bank as of today, began using blockchain to power repurchasing agreements. More specifically, the bank received a patent to incorporate smart contracts into its repo transactions.

Another example shows Russia’s energy grid operator Rosetti, yet another state-owned corporation, begin testing this digital ledger for payments in retails, as well as negotiations between partners and consumers. This way, the processes will supposedly become automated, as well as more transparent, between the parties, leading to a better mutual understanding.

In general, the last year has been somewhat successful for Russia in terms of being acknowledged by many famous players on the blockchain market. For instance, Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s Chief Executive Officer, praised the country for its “production” of programming talent that enriches the industry to such an extent.

Opaque digital legislation

Despite such active participation in digital transformation, Russia’s legislative framework still lacks sophisticated and solid grounds regarding cryptocurrencies. Sure, there have been attempts to introduce digital currencies into regulation; there have even been several official directives from officials - be it President Putin himself, the regional Supreme Arbitration Court, or the Financial Action Task Force, but the real results were never achieved.

One such legislative attempt was titled “On Digital Financial Assets”, introducing legal definitions and proper uses of cryptocurrencies. The bill was passed by the Russian parliament, but the success was short-lived, as some of the main concepts such as cryptocurrencies themselves, tokens, crypto mining, and others weren’t sufficiently defined.

Belligerent position towards crypto

More interestingly, there have been multiple news in 2019 that the Russian government was reportedly planning to prohibit the use of digital currencies for regular payments, such as shopping, online retail, utilities, etc. What’s more, even if such rumors were just rumors without the factual support, Russia’s central bank press department still announced their support of such legislation, claiming that they’ll “consider it appropriate to support this position.”

And as for Bitcoin, some outrageous allegations suggested that the upcoming legal statutes would allow the police to confiscate Bitcoin tokens from anyone who held it in Russia.

All in all, the blockchain background in Russia is somewhat equivocal: on the one hand, the new government with the leadership of Mikhail Mishustin is planning to expand the digital economy in the country. On the other hand, though, the past cases suggest the Russian government’s somewhat belligerent position towards Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The next few months will show how Mishustin’s plans are viable and realistic.