The new directive of the Russian Ministry of Labor on income, expense and property announcements that state employees must report for 2017 also mentions cryptocurrencies.. According to updated regulations, civil servants do not need to report their “digital coins”. While it was previously stated in the guidelines that civil servants do not need to report “goods and services in their natural state”, now comes the part “including digital currencies”. They said that cryptocurrencies do not need to be reported due to the lack of legal regulations:
“At the moment, approaches to the legal definition and regulation of cryptocurrencies in the Russian Federation are unclear.”
Risk of Corruption
Russian authorities have had to publicly disclose their income since 2009. ‘Experts’ criticized the absence of cryptocurrencies in these announcements. It is said that officials who are not required to report their income from cryptocurrencies may be taking bribes with cryptocurrencies and hiding it. Vladislav Tsepkov said it is highly unlikely that government employees will be bribed with cryptocurrencies:
“But cryptocurrencies are not a means of payment, they cannot be spent. If government employees sell (cryptocurrency) and generate real income, then this needs to be announced so the level of risk is minimal.”
Government employees are required to report almost any income they earn. These revenues include ‘real’ money from friends or family.
All these changes come as Russia experiences an all-time high level of corruption.. According to statistics on the subject, corruption has increased by more than 30 percent in Russia since 2008.
The Russian government still has not made a regulation covering digital currencies.. The Russian government and central bank, although at odds with each other, have a generally negative stance on the issue and see cryptocurrencies as too risky, especially for ordinary investors.
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