Hotels in Kaliningrad, the capital of Russia’s westernmost region, will allow football fans to pay with bitcoin for their accommodation when they visit the country for this year’s FIFA World Cup, which will be held from June 14 to July 15. Some hotels in Kaliningrad are reportedly partnering with a local payment provider to offer the service.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a warning about tech support scammers who are trying to steal assets from crypto-exchanges’ clients.
A Russian bank may make a pioneering step for the country in allowing its investors to invest in cryptocurrency this year, reports claim. Various local media outlets quote Gazprombank senior vice president Aleksandr Sobol as saying “some kind of pilot” scheme involving cryptocurrency might surface as soon as the end of 2018.
Two former employees of Crimea’s Council of Ministers have been fined 30,000 rubles ($525) each for mining bitcoins on the Council’s computer network, Russian media outlets reported.
A draft bill aiming to protect the rights of cryptocurrency owners was introduced by the minister of finance in Russia, in hopes of boosting cryptocurrency trade in the country. Apart from protection, the bill is expected to regulate the use of “digital money” for payments in the country, according to reports. Bill No424632-7 shines a light on various cryptocurrency-related activities in the country, such as defining cryptocurrency as digital money and outlining digital rights of digital assets owners. Once signed into law, the bill will regulate initial coin offerings (ICOs) and crypto mining, but bans cryptocurrencies.
Artyom Kozhin, deputy director of the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that his country was not involved in creating Venezuela’s controversial Petro cryptocurrency, any speculations on this issue are lies. Last week, Time Magazine reported that the Petro is a “half-hidden joint venture” between Venezuelan and Russian officials and businessmen.