HSE University Anti-Corruption Portal
Russia Defines Procedure for Public Officials to Declare Cryptocurrency

Russia has defined the grounds for and the format of disclosure of information on digital assets, rights and currency owned by public officials. 

Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 10, 2020 No. 778 “On the Measures for Implementing Specific Provisions of the Federal Law “On Digital Financial Assets, Digital Currency and on Amendments to Certain Legal Acts of the Russian Federation” (in Russian), which will enter into force on January 1, 2020, introduces the obligation to disclose, along with the information on income, expenditure and property-related obligations, the information on: 

  • digital financial assets,
  • digital currency*,
  • digital rights,
  • utilitarian digital rights**,

belonging to:

  • citizens applying for public positions and positions in the federal public service,
  • individuals holding public positions and positions of the federal public service which do notimply the obligation to disclose information on income, expenditure, or applying for the positions that imply such responsibility,
  • spouses and minor children of the above-mentioned categories of individuals.

The respective notification should be submitted from 1 January to 30 June 2021. 

Besides that, the Decree adopts the format of submission of relevant information in the notification. 

  1. As regards digital financial assets and digital rights, it is necessary to indicate their form, date of acquisition, total amount and data about the operator of the information system that issued those digital financial assets (including the country of incorporation and its license number).
  2. As for utilitarian digital rights, the respective notification should include information about their unique reference number, date of acquisition, amount of investments and operator of the investment platform.
  3. Regarding digital currency, it is necessary to disclose its title, date of acquisition and total amount.

The information is to be indicated as of the first day of the month preceding the month of application for the respective position. 

The Decree also amends a number of other legal acts.

Firstly, the Decree provides for the inclusion of operators of information systems that issue digital financial assets in the list of bodies/organisations from which only the persons from the list approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 2, 2013 No. 309 “On Measures for the Implementation of Specific Provisions of the Federal Law “On Combating Corruption” (in Russian) may seek.

Secondly, the Decree provides for the publication of information on the sources of the money for acquisition, in particular, of digital financial assets and digital currency on official websites of public bodies (if the total amount of the transaction exceeds the income of the official and his/her spouse for the previous three years). 

Finally, the Decree introduces amendments to the format of the income and expenditure declaration that will come into force in July 2021

  • in the income section: if income received from the sale of a digital financial asset, digital rights and digital currency is indicated in the “Other Income”, it is necessary to also indicate the date of their alienation, information about the operator of information system (investment platform) and the type of digital currency,
  • in the expenditure section, it will be necessary to indicate, in separate items, the information on the acquisition of digital financial assets and digital currency; in this case in the box “Grounds for Acquisition” the details of the record regarding digital financial assets in the information system that issued them should be indicated and the extract from it should be attached; as for digital currency, its ID number and date of transaction should be indicated and the extract on the transaction (if available) should be enclosed; as regards transactions related to the acquisition of digital financial assets and digital currency, it is necessary to attach to the declaration the documents (if available) confirming the value of transaction and/or information about the counterpart,
  • to the property section, subsections requiring to indicate information on digital financial assets and digital rights, utilitarian digital rights and digital currency in the form of the above-mentioned notification are added, 
  • in the section on property alienated under a free transaction, it will be necessary to indicate, in separate items, the information on the transferee, grounds for alienation and date of alienation of digital financial assets, digital rights, utilitarian digital rights and digital currency.

Therefore, the Decree, in conjunction with the previously adopted Federal Law, obliges officials to disclose information about transactions involving digital assets and digital currency in the framework of annual anti-corruption declaration campaigns. This information will be initially submitted in the form of a notification in addition to the income and expenditure declaration only by specific categories of individuals; in the future, after the amendments regarding the format of the declaration have come into force, submission of respective information will be obligatory for all declarants.     


*Digital financial assets mean digital rights, including monetary claims, possibility to exercise the rights relating to issued securities, rights to have a share in a non-public joint stock company, a right to claim the transfer of issued securities that are provided for by a decision on the issuance of digital financial assets according to the procedure established by the present law, whose issuance, recording and circulation are possible only by amending the record in an information system based on a shared register and in other information systems. 

Digital currency is a digital data set (digital code or symbol) in an information system that is proposed and (or) can be accepted as a means of payment which is not a currency unit in the Russian Federation, a currency unit of a foreign State and (or) an international currency unit or unit of account, and (or) as a means of investment and in respect of which there is no person that has responsibility towards each owner of such digital data, except for the operator and (or) nodes of the information system that are obliged only to ensure that the procedure for the issuance of these digital data and actions aimed at inserting (a change to) records in such information system are in line with its rules.

Federal Law of July 31, 2020 No. 259-FZ “On Digital Financial Assets, Digital Currency and on Amendments to Certain Legal Acts of the Russian Federation”.

**The following digital rights (utilitarian digital rights) can be acquired, alienated and implemented on an investment platform […]:

  1. the right to claim the transfer of a thing (things);
  2. the right to claim the transfer of exclusive rights to products of intellectual activity and (or) rights to use products of intellectual activity;
  3. the right to claim the execution of works and (or) provision of services.

Federal Law of August 2, 2019 No. 259-FZ “On the Attraction of Investments through Digital Investment Platforms and on Amendments to Certain Legal Acts of the Russian Federation”.

Tags
Asset disclosure

We use cookies in order to improve the quality and usability of the HSE website. More information about the use of cookies is available here, and the regulations on processing personal data can be found here. By continuing to use the site, you hereby confirm that you have been informed of the use of cookies by the HSE website and agree with our rules for processing personal data. You may disable cookies in your browser settings.