Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday officially instructed the government to come to a consensus regarding crypto regulation in Russia by Dec. 19, 2022.

The prime minister specifically called on the Duma and other state authorities to come up with coordinated policies on regulating the issuance and circulation of digital currencies in Russia. Mishustin also asked regulators to finalize regulations for cryptocurrency mining and cross-border transactions in digital currencies.

The official stressed that the upcoming draft crypto regulations should be aligned with the Russian Finance Ministry, the central bank, Anti-Money Laundering authority Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Tax Service and the Federal Security Service.

The latest news brings yet another official confirmation that Russia has been growing increasingly serious about the possibility of cryptocurrencies for cross-border transactions.

Last week, Deputy finance minister Alexei Moiseev reported that the Bank of Russia has agreed with the finance ministry to legalize crypto for cross-border payments. Despite its willingness to authorize cross-border transactions, the Russian central bank still opposed the legalization of local crypto exchanges as well as legalizing cryptocurrency as a means of payment.

The feasibility of banning domestic crypto exchanges while allowing cross-border payments apparently raises a lot of questions, especially given that Russia is yet to come up with a framework to provide such laws.

Russia might be the first country in the world to authorize cross-border crypto payments while banning local crypto payments, according to Maria Agranovskaya, a legal attorney and fintech expert in the Russian State Duma, told Cointelegraph. “This