Russian government has been consistently making efforts to penalize bitcoin use in the country. According to a recent development, the country seeks to raise fine for companies involved in the cryptocurrency mining or exchange.

According to Izvestia, the Russian Finance Ministry has prepared amendments to the law "On the Central Bank", which not only prohibits the production and turnover of cryptocurrency in the country, but also proposes companies involved in mining of digital currencies to face a fine of 3-5 million rubles (approximately $44,000-$74,000 according to current exchange rate) or administrative suspension of activity for up to 90 days, Coinfox reported.

“The official monetary unit (currency) of the Russian Federation is the ruble ... It is forbidden to introduce other monetary units and produce (issue) objects of property rights, including those in electronic form, used as means of payment and (or) exchange for cash and not expressly provided by the federal law (hereinafter - surrogate money), as well as to conduct transactions with the use of surrogate money,” Coinfox quoted an amended article draft of the Law on the Central Bank.

The proposal has already received support from Ministry of Economic Development, Federal Financial Monitoring Service, lawyers and bankers.

Earlier this year, the Finance Ministry prepared a draft law seeking to criminalize bitcoin mining and exchange. According to it, individuals issuing digital currencies could face a fine up to 500,000 rubles or imprisonment up to 4 years. Organized groups, for the same offense, are punishable by a fine of 500,000 rubles to 1 million rubles or the salary or other income for a period of 2 to 4 years, or imprisonment for up to 6 years.

Stricter penalty was proposed for top managers of financial institutions, who could face up to 7 years of imprisonment with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years or a fine of 1 million rubles to 2.5 million rubles or the salary or other income for a period of 2 to 4 years.