With the United States under President Trump already stockpiling cryptocurrencies, Russia should also explore opportunities to use Bitcoin and the like, according to the head of a major Russian business lobby group. The official also sees asset-backed stablecoins as a means to potentially resurrect the gold standard.
Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), is convinced that no government would like to see its sovereign rights as a money issuer challenged but recognizes the general consensus in Russia that crypto can be employed in cross-border payments.
Business lobby group urges Russian government to consider using cryptocurrencies
The authorities in Moscow should analyze the prospects for using cryptocurrencies in light of President Donald Trump’s decision to establish a strategic reserve of Bitcoin and other digital coins in the U.S. The head of the RSPP expressed this opinion in an interview released on Sunday.
The organization, over which Shokhin presides, promotes the interests of businesses in the Russian Federation and is one of the oldest lobby groups in the country. It was founded in 1991 when it succeeded the USSR’s Scientific and Industrial Union.
Speaking to the Tass news agency, he described cryptocurrencies as an “encroachment on the sovereign rights” of governments to issue money, adding that no central bank would want to face competition from other money issuers without the ability to control the issuing.
“But it seems that it has long been agreed that crypto can be used in cross-border settlements,” Shokhin remarked at the same time. He pointed out that in the context of the financial restrictions imposed on Russian business entities, cryptocurrency has found its place among payment instruments.
“Well, after Trump said that the United States will now become the crypto capital of the world and is already accumulating crypto reserves, so to speak, at least in Ethereum and Bitcoin, we also need to look at it somehow,” the lobbyist elaborated.
Shokhin backs idea of launching settlement system with stablecoins and gold
Alexander Shokhin emphasized that Russia should approach the matter carefully, avoiding the establishment of other money issuing centers while at the same time exploiting the benefits of using digital financial assets, including to conduct international settlements.
The RSPP executive further highlighted that this possibility has been addressed within proposals to create a new payment and settlement system, alternative to the U.S. dollar-based system and using stablecoins tied to different assets.
He suggested that Russia could think about creating a payment and settlement system similar to the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights but one introducing additional assets and reserves in the form of gold.
“That is, in a sense, returning to the gold standard and to exchange-traded commodities with prices that have been stable for 10 or more years. Such calculations are being made,” the official revealed in the interview.
Some officials in Russia still hoping for a crypto reserve
President Trump’s initiative to set up a cryptocurrency reserve with bitcoin and other coins seized by the authorities in the United States was met with little enthusiasm by policy makers across Europe, including the Russian Federation.
Governor of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina made it clear she didn’t see any circumstances under which cryptocurrency could enter the monetary authority’s reserves. The Ministry of Finance “has not heard about the creation of a strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies in Russia,” Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev was recently quoted as stating.
Nevertheless, the idea has had its backers in Russia. In December, Russian lawmaker Anton Tkachev urged the finance ministry to assess the feasibility of establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve. And last week, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber, Evgeny Masharov, proposed forming a government crypto fund to keep digital assets confiscated in criminal proceedings.
