Russia delays bill on prison terms for illegal crypto exchange until after State Duma elections

A bill that would introduce criminal liability for illegal cryptocurrency exchange in Russia will now be considered by the new State Duma after the elections. For high-risk PSPs, the practical point is simple: the draft keeps moving, and it still points toward criminal risk for exchange activity outside Bank of Russia-licensed companies.

1. The bill has not been dropped. According to the source, there have been no material objections, but there are still discussions over provisions affecting individuals, so the text is not yet ready for its second and third readings.
2. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has raised only technical-legal comments, and those remarks are expected to be taken into account when the draft is revised. That is procedural friction, not a full stop.
3. The trigger for illegality is clear in the draft: operations carried out without the involvement of companies licensed by the Bank of Russia. In other words, the law would draw a hard line around licensed operators and leave P2P exchange platforms in a much riskier zone.
4. Committee chair Anatoly Aksakov called concerns about P2P and exchange services “groundless,” even though the source notes a lingering risk that ordinary users could fall under the article. That unresolved line between professional activity and personal exchange is where most of the headache sits.
5. The delay until after the State Duma elections gives the market a temporary window of calm, but it does not change the direction of travel: the draft is still aimed at criminalizing the grey exchange segment and tightening the licensing perimeter.

For crypto exchanges, P2P platforms, and PSPs servicing Russian-related flow, the key question is not whether the bill exists anymore; it is where the boundary will be drawn between licensed activity and everything else. The source suggests that boundary is still being shaped, which is exactly the sort of uncertainty compliance teams like to keep in their dashboards and nobody likes to explain to a banking partner.