The Department of Justice has charged Russian citizen Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov with conspiracy to damage a protected computer system after he allegedly bribed an employee of a Nevada company with $1 million in Bitcoin to install malware in that company’s computer system. According to documents from the U.S. District Court of Nevada, Kriuchkov wanted to steal data from the company’s network, then threaten to make that data public unless the company paid a ransom. He first arranged contact with the employee via WhatsApp, then entered the United States on a tourist visa to meet him in person. The District Court …

Russian telecommunication giant Rostelekom, together with the Russian Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, tested a blockchain-based voting system developed in collaboration with Waves Enterprise. As local news outlets reported, the preliminary test involved 30,000 people who were trying out the platform’s functionality and technical capabilities. According to Rostelekom spokespeople, the system worked as intended during the test and did not fail under high load. Votes were reportedly counted in less than one minute through homomorphic encryption systems. This method allows calculations to result in the same output even if the underlying data remains encrypted. Officials noted that the test …

BestChange.ru, a major cryptocurrency website in Russia, has got blocked shortly after local lawmakers finally passed the country’s crypto legislation. An aggregator of about 400 local crypto exchange websites, BestChange.ru website was blocked by Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor on Aug. 26. The website is still available through the use of VPN services as well as mirror websites like BestChange.net, according to a popup announcement on BestChange.ru. According to an announcement on local social media VK.com, BestChange.ru website was blocked alongside a bunch of other industry sites for “mentions of Bitcoin cryptocurrency." According to public court records cited by BestChange, Roskomnadzor …

Sberbank, the largest state-owned bank in Russia, is working with a major domestic airline company to introduce a blockchain-based ticket sale system. Russia’s largest bank is reportedly collaborating with S7 Airlines on a new ticket sale platform that will enable corporate clients with instant settlement through smart contracts and tokens. According to an Aug. 26 report by local newspaper Kommersant, the new system is planned to roll out in September 2020. This would be the first time virtual tokens are used for payment and settlement in Russia, the report notes. As reported, the new system is only targeting corporate clients …

As part of its Russian expansion plans, Seychelles-based exchange Huobi Global appointed Vladimir Demin as the company’s chief advisor. His main role will be to help develop the company’s market in the region. According to the announcement, he had previously served as partner and CEO of Huobi Russia. Demin believes that market opportunities in the country for both crypto and blockchain “are huge”. He hopes to help Huobi Global to expand the high demand for crypto products in Russia. Huobi Russia’s trading volume reached almost 10% of Huobi Global’s total volume, taking into account that the exchange currently has a …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note The political machinations of Eastern Europe have dominated recent headlines. Protests unprecedented since the fall of the Soviet Union have rocked Belarus for weeks. Outrage over the Aug. 8 election that has seen challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya flee the country has threatened the longtime dominion of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, the so-called “last dictator in Europe.” Protestors are calling the 80% win for Lukashenko a fraud. The regime has tried to crack down with its traditional tactics of disinformation and …

Russia is set to pilot a national blockchain-based e-voting system in September. The new system was developed in partnership between Rostelecom, Russia’s largest integrated provider, and Waves Enterprise. Another recent blockchain e-voting experiment in Russia ended in fiasco after the system suffered a number of setbacks and attacks. The Russian government used a different blockchain provider of digital services and solutions, Bitfury, for that particular implementation however. Artem Kalikhov, chief product officer of Waves Enterprise, told Cointelegraph that their work with Rostelecom was independent of that previous pilot. Kalikhov said that the system developed by Waves employes zero-knowledge proofs and …

Expobank, a commercial bank in Russia, has reportedly issued the country’s first ever loan backed by cryptocurrency. According to an Aug. 19 report by local news agency Kommersant, Expobank provided the credit through issuing an individual bank loan powered by Waves (WAVES) tokens. Waves CEO and founder Alexander Ivanov confirmed the news in a tweet, noting that the loan used Waves tokens as collateral. He told Cointelegraph that the firm is not currently working with any other banks in developing tools for securing bank loans with Waves open protocol. Ivanov added that Waves did not promote the protocol for this …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note DeFi has stolen the show lately. Spectacular rises and falls of unaudited tokens named after meme-able foods changing hands via ascendant liquidity pools have left many of us unimaginative observers mostly blinking. In this area, I can offer no particularly hot takes beyond the line that keeps coming to me: “This does not end well.” Chalk it up to some midwestern assumption that money you make too quickly is never truly yours. But the situation with DeFi and yield …

A major financial watchdog in Russia is developing a new cryptocurrency analytics tool to trace major cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC) and privacy coins. Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, a federal service combating money laundering and terrorist financing, is reportedly planning to build a new analytics platform for tracking cryptocurrency transactions via artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Transparent Blockchain,” the new system is designed to track the movement of digital financial assets and identify crypto service providers to fight illicit activity related to digital assets, local news agency RBC reported on Aug. 10. According to the report, the new system is able to …

An advisor to Russian Railways, the country’s national rail operator, praised the rise of blockchain technology and hinted that it could be implemented as part of the country’s rail network. According to Vgudok, Sergey Vinogradov, the general director of the Scientific Research Institute of Railway Transport, blockchain may have a place in the national transport system. In fact, Vinogradov believes the rail network could be managed using blockchain-based smart contracts in tandem with a predictive system for managing the maintenance of container trains. He also feels that a future blockchain-based platform could help logistics firms, buyers and sellers to purchase …

Russian legislators have passed the nation’s first crypto law after discussing crypto regulation for the last five years. The bill, titled “On Digital Financial Assets,” has had dozens of versions that have varied from one another massively. The version that was discussed last year didn’t have any identification of any digital currencies whatsoever. Another bill presented this year proposed jail sentences for buying large amounts of crypto with cash and large fines for smaller amounts. While the current version mentions digital currencies, it is not going to send Russian traders to the decentralized gulag. Basically, it restricts buying goods and …