He pointed out that although there are no provisions in Russian legislation regulating the blockchain and cryptocurrency markets, there is a plan to create a cryptocurrency investment fund and a cryptocurrency exchange in Crimea.
Muradov said “We have a plan to establish a cryptocurrency investment fund that will enable implementation of various investment projects in the Crimean territory and perhaps outside it as well … Our Chinese partners are especially interested in these projects, as there are many cryptocurrenty, cryptoequipment, and blockchain start-ups in China.”
He opined that the cryptocurrency circulation system would solve the problem of avoiding dollar use and circumventing bank restrictions that Crimea is currently facing.
The idea of establishing a cryptoinvestment fund in Crimea, which has been controlled by the Russian Government since 2014, was highlighted at the 4th International Economic Forum in Yalta in April 2018. At that time, the authorities began to look for ways to circumvent sanctions through the use of decentralized currencies in all relations with partners and investors.
The plans were confirmed again in November 2018 with Muradov clarifying that the peninsula needed to set up a blockchain cluster. The same month, Roman Kulachenko, president of the Crimean Republican Association of Blockchain Technologies Investment, said that a new international education center could be opened on the Crimean peninsula to work with blockchain technologies to avoid sanctions.
The initiative envisages the creation of a blockchain cluster in Crimea, including an investment fund for cryptocurrency and a cryptocurrency exchange. The forum also discussed the possibility of starting the production of blockchain equipment in Crimea.
Russia has been struggling to pass a bill on crypto regulation throughout 2018. In December, however, the draft was pushed back to the first reading stage for major edits— although the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia denied the need for change.