“Russian authorities have issued warnings against using Bitcoin, saying the virtual currency could be used for money laundering or financing terrorism and that treating it as a parallel currency is illegal,” Gabriela Baczynska reports for Reuters.
“‘Systems for anonymous payments and cyber currencies that have gained considerable circulation – including the most well-known, Bitcoin – are money substitutes and cannot be used by individuals or legal entities,’ the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on February 6,” Baczynska reports. “Russia’s central bank also said on January 27 that Bitcoin trade was highly speculative and that the unit carried a big risk of losing value. ‘Citizens and legal entities risk being drawn – even unintentionally – into illegal activity, including laundering of money obtained through crime, as well as financing terrorism,’ it warned.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Russia’s 2014 Winter Olympics gold medal winner, Julia Lipnitskaia, skating to the music of Schindler’s List in the 2014 European Figure Skating Championships.
What a performance that was thanks for posting that.
On topic, if the virtual currency could be used for money laundering or financing terrorism it will probably be legal and supported in the U.S. (minus Apple of course, they still have integrity).
I’m sure it will help them save their buildings, prevent toothpaste bombs and pay to ensure that their warships can be sent all over in order to evacuate their citizens just in case people decide they don’t want too many terrorists in their country.
governments only against because they’re cut out of the transaction. If they can find away to get a small fee or tax off each transaction they would be all over virtual currencies
Interesting. And did you know that Bitcoin was actually responsible for 9-11, and they keep the whole Arab world in turmoil. Plus any other wild theories people might have.
/s
Quit with the government thing already. Don’t you think organized crime and terrorists aren’t chomping on the bit to have an easier way to spend for and fund their operations.
this isn’t about organized crime. its about getting a piece of the pie. that’s why many states sell lottery scratch off cards/tickets and allow indians to build casinos. they say yes when they get money too.
If bit coin announced they will save 3% of transaction to give to the gov. the gov would selling bit coins themselves.
If they hate botcoin so much why don’t they buy them all up or even mine some. bit coin will only produce so much, so let them hoard them away from people
Wrong, this is completely about unregulated currency. Bitcoin already has become a favorite depository for hackers and other criminals, and is surely to be used to fund terrorism, organized crime, and drug smugglers because it is nearly untraceable.
Most of the banking regulations produced in the past 10-15 years have been aimed primarily at stopping money laundering, drug trafficking, and other illegal activity. Bitcoin circumvents all of that, and therefore governments don’t like it at all. Look for more countries to follow Russia’s lead very quickly. If you have Bitcoins, you may want to think about dumping them very soon.
Bitcoin is about funding terrorism and “money” is used to fund MASSIVE military killings all over the world. In fact more people have been killed by “legitimate” bombs then by terrorists bombs yet we all (meaning worldwide) will do anything to protect our “legitimate” institutions of killing, while we work hard to stomp out the “unofficial” killing (terrorism). I hate to go pacifist on you all but I think we all need to have a good look in the mirror. Killing is killing and crime is crime. “Leaders” sending airplanes full of bombs to drop on cities, is that not a crime? Using our tax money to fund that killing and keeping it top secret, is that not money laundering on a massive scale? If the government doesn’t tell us how they spend our money, and then they use it to kill people, isn’t that money laundering and terrorism too?
War will never end until we as a society finally agree that ALL forms of organized murder are equal and that there is no such thing as “legitimate” murder.
It is time for rational people to take a stand against terrorism AND the military with equal force. There is no place for either institution in a peaceful world.
its not a peaceful world.
more people are killed in the name of God, so lets stop all religion
The intelligent amongst us already have stopped practicing antiquated religious dogma.
Religion: a sorry excuse to not use one’s brain to improve the world here and now.