The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has struck down the ban
imposed on the Bitcoininfo.ru portal. The outlet is one several dozens of
crypto-related websites that have been taken offline by the Russian authorities
in the past few years. The decision sets a precedent which is likely to
determine the faith of many other online editions. The ruling should also put
an end to arbitrary decisions by Russian prosecutors and judges.
Russia’s Supreme Court has effectively annulled a decision
to ban access to the Bitcoininfo.ru website, once popular Russian portal
containing crypto-related information and news. The ruling sets a precedent for
more than 40 sites with similar content taken down by Russian
authorities over the last several years.
Access to Bitcoininfo.ru was
restricted in the summer of 2016. In July of that year, the Vyborgsky District
Court in Saint Petersburg decided that the online edition violates the Law “On
the Central Bank of the Russian Federation” by publishing materials about
bitcoin.
The leading crypto was described as
“electronic currency, which is a virtual means of payment and accumulation”.
The information about it was deemed illegal and even “subversive” in regards to
“the constitutional order, the authority of the Russian state, and the material
welfare of its citizens.”
“There is only one monetary unit in
Russia”, the district court said, when asked by the Prosecutor’s Office to ban
the website. “Money surrogates”, the term often used by Russian officials when
referring to cryptocurrencies, are illegal in the country. After the Supreme
Court’s decision, the case will be returned to the City Court of Russia’s
Northern Capital to be reviewed again, as reported by RBC.
When Bitcoininfo.ru was banned two years ago, the defense
tried to appeal the district court’s decision, citing procedural violations.
Nikolai Tonkoshkurov, the owner of the website, had not been subpoenaed to
attend the hearing. After the City Court of Saint Petersburg refused to accept
the appeal, he referred the case to the Supreme Court in Moscow.
According to Tonkoshkurov’s lawyer,
Sarkis Darbinyan, the court in Russia’s second largest city can now determine
the future of all crypto-related online editions. However, he shared his
disappointment that the Supreme Court has refrained from ruling on the status
of cryptocurrencies in general.
“Nevertheless, we think this is a very
important decision,” Darbinyan said noting the “systemic problem” with websites
banned by prosecutors, who don’t even inform their owners about the
restrictions. Тhis practice deprives entrepreneurs of proper legal protection,
he added. Darbinyan also stressed that any such arbitrary decisions in the
future should be considered invalid.
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