Despite Russia’s fairly negative position on cryptocurrencies, an advisor to President Putin met with Huobi’s Founder and CEO to discuss potential collaboration and Huobi’s place in the country.
Cryptocurrencies a “Great Opportunity”
The founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, Leon Li, met with Sergey Glazyev – advisor to President Vladimir Putin, in Beijing on September 20. The topic of their discussion was blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, as well as a potential expansion of Huobi in Russia.
Speaking on the matter, advisor Glazyev noted:
The cryptocurrency industry is still booming and expanding, and almost every country on the planet is making an attempt to grow the crypto-space. If Huobi Group can set a good example for the market, it will be of great help to Russia’s national legislation on blockchain cryptocurrencies. […] The combination of Huobi’s experience to implement in Russia will have a positive effect on Russia’s economic growth. Therefore, I believe this is a great opportunity to explore this area.
Glazyev is a noted advocate for blockchain technologies and he holds that they can be used to support government affairs and to potentially combat different types of financial fraud and corruption.
Swimming Against the Tide?
Earlier this month, Live Bitcoin News reported that the special representative of President Putin on the matters of digital and technological development, Dmitry Peskov, said that can’t be allowed at present time.
The statement fell in line with the country’s previous policy on the matter, as Russian had previously seized 22 Bitcoin ATMs. Moreover, a new regulatory amendment from August, proposed by Andrey Khrapov, advocated for tighter KYC rules for low-scale cryptocurrency transactions.
The country has also moved to track cryptocurrency transactions under suspicions of financial fraud and terror financing, which is somewhat conflicting with Glazyev statements that they can be used to prevent financial fraud and corruption.
What do you think of Russia’s overall position towards cryptocurrencies? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!
Image courtesy of ShutterStock