Bitcoin Can Wreak Havoc by ‘Ruining’ Governments: Senior Russian Official
By CCN: A top official with Russia’s State Duma (the Russian Parliament) warned that bitcoin has the capacity to ruin governments because it could facilitate the offshoring of massive amounts of money.
Nikolay Arefyev, the deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on economic policy, sounded the alarm at a May 20 press conference, Rambler reported.
Official: We don’t want capital exodus from Russia
Specifically, Arefyev warned that cryptocurrencies could lead to Russia’s collapse because it could trigger a mass-withdrawal of capital to offshore accounts.
“If cryptocurrency worked, we would be completely ruined today because all financial flows would be taken out of Russia. And Russia would end. Because cryptocurrencies were created to ensure that the state does not control the flow of capital.”
Arefyev noted that since 1994, about 210 trillion rubles (or $3.25 billion) have been withdrawn from Russia. That’s equivalent to half of Russia’s annual budget.
Arefyev: Purpose of bitcoin is tax evasion
Arefyev claims bitcoin was created to hide large amounts of money in secret offshore accounts in order to enable wealthy individuals and entities to avoid paying taxes.
Therefore, Nikolay Arefyev says it’s useless to integrate bitcoin with Russia’s current financial system because it’s too speculative and shady. Instead, he suggested that a better approach would be to ban cryptocurrencies altogether.
