Rosfinmonitoring to Monitor Streamers and Cryptocurrencies

Rosfinmonitoring is working on the legal regulation of streamers’ activities, emphasizing the importance for banks to identify recipients of donations. In an interview with TASS, Deputy Director of the agency German Neglyad explained: “We are talking about regulating streaming activities as such. Indeed, this issue arose from the problem of so-called ‘trash streamers,’ including the fact that these individuals are essentially earning money from their actions.”

Neglyad continued, “If we talk about possibly stopping such financing, it is important for banks to understand who is receiving the funds. Is this recipient operating within the legal framework, meaning registered as an individual entrepreneur and paying taxes?” He clarified that it is necessary to distinguish those working legally from other streamers. “Measures are being developed. Of course, this issue should be resolved with the participation of the regulator in this field, primarily Roskomnadzor and the Federal Tax Service,” Neglyad added.

Earlier, Alexey Pushkov, Chairman of the Federation Council’s temporary commission on information policy and media relations, reported that Rosfinmonitoring is considering the possibility of registering internet users who stream as individual entrepreneurs, since their activities are aimed at generating income.

Interest in Cryptocurrencies

The agency is also showing interest in cryptocurrencies. Plans include introducing additional controls over transactions involving money obtained from cryptocurrency conversion. “Banks have already started paying attention to exchange operations. When they see a transaction following the exchange of virtual assets for hard currency, they are already evaluating and reporting these transactions to us,” Neglyad said.

Additionally, in October, Rosfinmonitoring and the Bank of Russia will jointly introduce a special code to separate “such suspicious transactions” into a distinct group. Neglyad also noted that cases and risks of terrorist financing using cryptocurrencies are already being recorded. He emphasized that he could not disclose details but mentioned that Russia is actively cooperating with financial intelligence units of foreign countries on this issue.

According to Neglyad, criminals most often use Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero. Rosfinmonitoring has proposed to President Vladimir Putin the creation of a “Transparent Blockchain” service to track criminal transactions.