Russia’s Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin has, once again, opined that virtual and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are money substitutes or surrogates that need to be outlawed. He also claimed that virtual currencies are “often used” for the financing of terrorism.
In a sweeping, wide-ranging column on Russian publication Kommersant , Alexander Bastykin – chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia and General of Justice of the Russian Federation wrote about extremism in Russia and the ways to curb it.
He speaks of a “hybrid war”, one “unleashed” by the United States and its allies on Russia and “a number of other countries” over the past decade. This war, Bastykin adds, is being waged on multiple fronts including the political, economic, legal and informational spaces.
“And in recent years, it has moved into a qualitatively new phase of open confirmation,” he added. Russian President Putin with Alexander Bastrykin The write-up covers a variety of factors concerning extremism, including everything from migrants at an increased risk of being radicalized to calling for libraries, schools and other educational institutions to restrict public access to the internet, specifically toward extremist websites.
It is here that he calls for an effective means to counter the “ongoing information war against Russia”, which primarily involves cutting off financial support for terrorism.
Remarking that virtual currencies are directly tied in with the financing of terrorism, the Russian official states: As experience has shown, the financing of terrorism is often [achieved] using virtual cryptocurrency that has no central issuer or a single point of control over transactions. Payments are characterized by anonymity. The Russian official’s statement that cryptocurrencies have been previously shown to be used in financing terrorism makes for marked contrast from the findings of an official report from the European Union’s law enforcement agency – Europol.
Following a researcher report into […]
