The leading Russian electronic wallet platform, Yandex.Money is interested in facilitating cryptocurrency transactions, given that they are not officially banned, says the platform's CEO Maria Gracheva.

According to Ms Gracheva, cryptocurrency emission is not what the company is keen on, planning to focus instead on acting as a mediator between the cryptocurrency users.

Speaking to the reporters at the Finnopolis FinTech Forum held in Kazan, Ms Gracheva speculated that if the Central Bank of Russia allows the use of cryptocurrency, then most of its holders would be glad to spend it. Which is why, Yandex.Money wants to be ready to facilitate such transactions, given they are not ruled illegal.

Earlier this week, a number of announcements came from Russian financial authorities. The head of Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, German Gref admitted possessing bitcoins and the Governor of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina stated that the CB was not ruling out cryptotechnologies, planning to research them and look for a way to prevent the use of cryptocurrencies in dubious operations.

Still, some representatives of the Russian financial establishment express strong views against cryptotechnologies and bitcoin blockchain. Deputy Minister of Finance Alexey Moiseev called Bitcoin "a dangerous toy", while the Financial Ombudsman Pavel Medvedev said the emission of any currency except for the ruble was illegal and should be considered a crime.

The whole discussion started as the CEO of Qiwi electronic wallet system announced the company's intention to introduce blockchain-based equivalent of the bitcoin electronic currency named ‘bitruble’ in Russia.

Maria Rudina