We'll Never Legalize Bitcoin, Says Russian Minister (siliconangle.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: In yet another backflip worthy of the Moscow Circus, a Russian minister has said that the country will never legalize bitcoin, just seven months after another government minister said it was considering making it legal. Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov made the statement this week, saying that "bitcoin is a foreign project for using blockchain technology, the Russian law will never consider bitcoin as a legal entity in the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation." Recognizing that blockchain technology is separate to bitcoin, Nikiforov went on to say that "I think that it is quite possible to use blockchain technology and the use of various digital tokens." Those tokens may constitute a Russian-issued cryptocurrency. TASS reported that "Russia's Communication Ministry has submitted to the government the document containing technical details related to cryptocurrencies adoption."

Comments

Re:The more you tighten your grip...

[Kiuas]

VPNs, encryption, Tor,

Are all already banned in Russia. ISPs are madated by law to prevent the use of Tor/proxies/VPNs because they can be used to access 'extremist material'.

It's really descriptive of just how totalitarian the country has become that they're hard at work at out-Chinaing China itself when it comes to the control of the internet.

This is not to say there won't be those who still have access to Tor and VPNs, especially to those who're friends of the right people, but for the common folk this makes it really hard.