MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI) – Senior Russian lawmaker advanced a bill in the parliament on Wednesday banning cryptocurrency as means of payment. 

The bill is aimed at “increasing investment attractiveness of the use of digital rights by business” and improving payment policy for transactions using financial platforms, investment platforms, and systems in which digital financial assets are issued, according to the explanatory note on the bill.

It was introduced by Anatoly Aksakov, head of the financial committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament.

The bill would require amendments to the legislation on the National Payment System in order to add operators of electronic platforms to a special registry of Russia’s central bank and make them oblige by certain rules and requirements. 

The financial committee voiced in April support for the adoption of a bill to make crypto asset transactions taxable. Sberbank PJSC and Lighthouse LLC followed.