Putin legalizes mining of cryptocurrencies in Russia

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law legalizing the mining of cryptocurrencies in the country.

The document, available on the government website, comes into effect 10 days after the date of its publication.

Only Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs registered in a special inventory will have the right to carry out mining, the process that cryptocurrencies use to generate new coins and verify new transactions.

Individuals who do not exceed the energy consumption limits set by the government will receive the right to mine digital currency without being included in the register.

A number of measures are envisaged to exclude the possibility of using digital currency for the purpose of money laundering.

Putin also signed into law several other bills, including the ban on drug advertisements on the internet and in the media, and authorization to recognize organizations whose founders are foreign government agencies as undesirable in Russia.