The Omsk Regional Court overturned the decision of the Kuibyshevsky District Court of Omsk, according to which the cryptocurrency in the Russian Federation was recognized as a “money surrogate promoting the growth of the shadow economy.”
Based on this decision, Roskomnadzor previously blocked the portal Bestchange.ru , which is used to search for cryptocurrency exchangers , including cryptocurrency exchangers . In addition, online exchangers Fastobmen.net, Pushpayer.com and Xchange.cash were entered in the registry of prohibited sites.
The resolution of the Kuibyshev District Court of Omsk is dated July 24, 2018. The decision states that the official currency in the territory of Russia is the ruble, and “the introduction of other monetary units and the issuance of monetary substitutes is prohibited”. The court referred cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) , to these surrogates, which "contribute to the growth of the shadow economy and cannot be used by citizens and legal entities on the territory of the Russian Federation."
In its decision, the court referred to the position of Rosfinmonitoring and the Bank of Russia, concluding that the use of digital money in transactions can be viewed as “potential involvement in carrying out suspicious operations under the law on countering the financing of terrorism”. The court order stated:
“Placing in the public domain information about the“ electronic currency ”Bitcoin, which is a virtual means of payment and accumulation, is contrary to federal laws and is information whose distribution in the territory of the Russian Federation is prohibited.”
Subsequently, the portal Bestchange.ru appealed the decision of the district court. The interests of the portal were represented by Sarkis Darbinyan, a lawyer of the Center for Digital Law, and Anastasia Vasilyeva, a lawyer with the Omsk Navalny Headquarters.
On May 7, it became known that the Omsk Regional Court overturned the decision of the lower instance and sent the case for a new review. Sarkis Darbinyan commented on the court decision:
“We will wait until the materials are sent to the Kuibyshev District Court. According to our forecasts, the matter will not reach the new consideration. There is already a certain judicial practice, for blocking the same Bestchange.ru, decisions were completely canceled earlier. As for the last case, the cancellation of the blocking decision is due to several reasons. In particular, the case was considered by the district court in the absence of the site owner. In addition, there is no real reason to recognize such information (about Bitcoin) as illegal. ”
Publication date 08/05/2019
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