- Russia must be ‘isolated to the maximum extent possible.’ According to the German Finance Minister
- Cryptocurrencies are accused of being a way to get around sanctions.
According to German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, finance ministers from the G-7 Nations and the European Union are cooperating to prevent Russia from adopting cryptocurrency to dodge sanctions.
Lindner said the problem is being discussed, but he wouldn’t go into specifics. His country presently holds the G-7 presidency, and its finance chiefs and central bank governors met virtually with Ukraine Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko on Tuesday.
“We know what the problem is, and we’re working on it,” Lindner said in a Wednesday interview with Welt TV. “It’s about isolating Russia at all levels” and having a “maximum ability to penalize and that includes crypto assets,” according to the White House.
The US and EU have already announced measures to limit Russia’s capacity to transact in dollars and other international currencies. Penalties for the country’s largest banks, as well as limits on the country’s elite, are among them.
As a result, some have speculated that cryptocurrency, which is marketed as an alternative to existing financial systems, could be used by wealthy Russians to get around the sanctions. Some cryptocurrency exchanges are headquartered in countries where sanctions aren’t applicable, while others don’t need customer identification, making it harder to enforce restrictions.
Fiat currency, on the other hand, must be transferred through third-party institutions that can track, freeze, or block them.
President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde called for further efforts last week to pass crypto laws in the EU, which might aid in the implementation of penalties in that field. The European Parliament is currently working on legislation known as Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), which intends to build a regulatory framework that might also make sanctions easier to apply.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
