Last updated on April 14th, 2026 at 02:22 pm
Coming barely 24 hours after El-Salvador officially adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender, the Russian government has said there is no reason for the country to adopt crypto assets as a legal tender.
This is based on a comment by Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who addressed reporters in the country’s capital, Moscow.
Peskov said:
“Clearly, Russia is not ready for such steps.”
The statement, quoted by RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday, came as the Republic of El Salvador became the world’s first country to recognize bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender for payments in its jurisdiction.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law came into effect on September 7, 2021, making the leading crypto by market cap a national currency alongside the U.S. dollar.
The adoption of Bitcoin by El-Salvador means residents can now pay for goods and services using the cryptocurrency.
In May, there were reports members of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, had started working on amendments to the Civil Code to enhance the use of crypto assets as contractual means of payment.
However, the recent comments by Putin’s media aide suggest the country is a long way from adopting cryptocurrencies as legal tenders.
Moscow partially regulated coins and tokens with the new law “On Digital Financial Assets” which entered into force at the beginning of this year. Its provisions recognize cryptocurrencies as property but prohibit their use for payments.
The national fiat ruble remains the only legal tender, while other forms of currency are banned in the Russian Federation.
By the end of 2021, the Bank of Russia, which had opposed the adoption of decentralized digital money, is preparing to launch a digital ruble prototype.
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