Russia’s Putin insists ‘too early’ to use digital currency for oil trading

The Russian government hasn’t placed a total ban on digital currency in the country, although they are yet to accept it as a legal tender as they fear it may have a negative impact on the country’s economic and financial system.

Recently, Russia President Vladimir Putin said that in his opinion it is too early to talk about using digital currency for oil trading. He believes that it’s “still premature” to use digital currencies for settling trades of energy resources such as oil. Although he sees a possibility of digital currency becoming a means of accumulation.

Putin said in an interview after a plenary session of the ​​Russian Energy Week forum, “Cryptocurrency contracts? It’s too early to talk about this, because cryptocurrency, of course, can be a unit of account, but it is very unstable. In order to transfer funds from one place to another, yes, but to trade, let alone trade in energy resources, in my opinion, is still premature. The cryptocurrency is not backed by anything yet. It exists and as a means of calculation can be used, of course, yes, but trading in oil, say, or other primary materials and energy sources—still, it seems to me, it’s too early to talk about this for now.”

“But everything develops, everything has the right to exist. We will see how it will go further, maybe someday it may also be a means of accumulation. We see this market fluctuate. It’s a bit early today,” Putin added.

The Russian president also said he does not consider the digital currency holdings of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla to be worthless. Since digital currencies are not backed up by anything yet and he is skeptical about using them as a unit of account regarding energy trading.

Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy Minister of Finance Alexey Moiseev said in a recent media report by the local Interfax news agency: “Russian citizens may have an open wallet outside the Russian Federation, but if they operate within the Russian Federation, then they will be subject to bans, I believe, for the foreseeable future, due to our financial sovereignty.”

This means Russian citizens will still be able to buy and trade coins. However, the deputy finance minister added that lawmakers have yet to properly define digital currencies and blockchain technology in the Russian civil code.

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