Russia may allow cryptocurrencies in four regions

Experts will start testing blockchain and cryptocurrencies in Kaliningrad Oblast, Kaluga Oblast, Perm Krai and Moscow, the local media outlet Izvestia reports, citing the sources from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. 

The authorities aim to create regulatory sandboxes in the above regions to test innovative technologies that are currently out of scope of the existing legislation in Russia 

Namely, the experts will be engaged in experiments with blockchain, digital money concepts, neurotechnologies, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, robototechnics and virtual reality, the deputy minister of economic development Savva Shipov commented. 

Also, he added that these regulatory sandboxes might serve as a driver and catalyst that would speed up the development of a legal field and regulatory environment for innovative technologies. 

According to the member of the Presidential Council on human rights and civil society development Kirill Kabanov, the existing legislation lags behind the economic reality in many aspects, including cryptocurrencies. 

The proposed sandboxes will help to develop standards needed to adapt legal environment to the new technological practices and systems. Meanwhile, some experts believe that the regulators are unlikely to soften their approach towards cryptocurrencies if only because they prove to be secure within the sandbox. 

In January, Anatoliy Aksakov, to the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, said that Russia might consider creating cryptoruble following the blockchain technology mass adoption.