Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, will debate a crypto regulation bill that was formulated by the Ministry of Finance at the start of the year in the coming weeks, a senior MP has claimed.

Speaking to Lenta, Konstantin Bakharev, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Markets, explained that the matter of crypto regulation could no longer be postponed – despite the fact that the Central Bank still opposes anything other than a total ban on crypto in Russia.

The committee’s Chair has previously stated that the bill would be tabled before the end of the spring session. And these sentiments were echoed by Bakharev, who was quoted as stating:

“The debate will be held in the near future. By that I mean, during the spring session. I have no doubt. We can no longer postpone it.”

If this is truly to be the case, the Duma will need to hurry. The current (spring) session ends on July 31, and MPs are still returning from a two-week break that began in early May. MPs will then be away from the chamber until August 29. If the bill were to pass two readings in the current session, debates would likely need to commence in the next two weeks.

But Bakharev indicated that the Central Bank and the government (which has the backing of most senior MPs on the matter) are still at loggerheads.

The bank has joined a cross-ministerial and joint-public-private sector working group on crypto regulation but still appears to be opposed to the bill – which seeks to “legalize” crypto ownership and trading. The bill also outlines tax procedures crypto traders would need to follow, seeks to regulate crypto exchanges, and – perhaps most importantly – seeks to…