Russia is preparing legislation to allow law enforcement agencies to confiscate illegally obtained cryptocurrencies, Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov said, according to TASS.
Speaking at a conference in Saint Petersburg, Krasnov said cryptocurrency use by criminals is a serious issue for law enforcement. The country passed its first law regulating the digital assets last year. Now, the criminal and penal codes are being updated to allow law enforcement to “apply restrictive measures and confiscation to the virtual assets,” he said.
According to Krasnov, crypto is increasingly used for bribery, making it even harder to trace than it is with fiat money.
Earlier, a representative of Russia’s financial surveillance body, Rosfinmonitoring, said the agency was planning to trace bitcoin cash-outs and add a new classification code for suspicious transactions involving crypto.
Cryptocurrencies were introduced into the Russian legal system last year and deemed a taxable property. Russian public officials have been banned from owning crypto starting this year.
Recently, bitcoin has been getting traction as a fundraising tool among Russia’s civil and political activists, as well as independent journalists.
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