The President of Russia Vladimir Putin has reportedly highlighted how crucial it is to come up with extra measures for combating illegal cross-border transactions of crypto financial assets.

Specifically, during his speech at a board meeting of the General Prosecutor’s office, Putin reportedly mentioned the rise of criminal elements, running deployment of crypto financial assets. 

“There is one more point — quite new, but essential: we should take additional measures to suppress illegal cross-border movement of digital financial assets”. 

The Russian president has reportedly put out an order for the nation’s police department and the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring, or Rosfinmonitoring, to invest more resources in handling this matter. 

Since Putin did not offer any collaborations regarding the context of illegal cross-border transactions using digital assets, it is still not clarified the exact violations he is referring to. 

“It is not the first time when the President asks law enforcement agencies and a Russian financial intelligence unit to pay special attention to crypto transactions in such a negative context. But it is unclear what is meant by “cross-border” crypto operations which are world-wide by their nature and how law enforcement measures could apply.” Nikita Soshnikov, a former senior lawyer at Deloitte CIS and director of Alfacash, reportedly remarked. 

Russia has reportedly put its crypto law – “On Digital Financial Assets,” – in effect starting January last year, keeping a close watch on crypto-enabled payments across the nation. 

The Russian authority has reportedly also been spending resources in distinguishing initiatives to adopt restrictions on foreign payment services and digital wallets, such as AliPay and WeChat.