Is Russia Trying To Get A Jump On The US Once Again With Voskhod?

Is Russia Trying To Get A Jump On The US Once Again With Voskhod?

It's been a rough few days for bitcoin. Towards the end of last week, news out of Russia and China hit press and book with its pretty substantial downside pressure on the bitcoin price. South Korea joined the fray at the start of this weekend and compounded the action. Now, however, it seems at least one of these regions is starting to reverse its bias – Russia. 

First up, it's worth noting that much of the news and reports emanating from Russia right now seem to be conflicting with one another. It was only last week, after all, that we learned that policymakers in the nation want to restrict buying and selling of currency to the Moscow Stock Exchange, which, in turn, would restrict access to accredited investors.

We also learned that the government is considering setting up some sort of energy/bitcoin transfer service through which individuals can sell excess energy for bitcoin and vice versa. Fast forward to today and the latest news comes from this interview, as published by Russian media outlet Tass.ru at the site of this week.

As per the report,Deputy Prime Minister YuryTrutnev revealed that the Russian government has already approved a platform called Voskhod for cryptocurrency trading and that this entity is the first and only (right now) approved entity of its kind in the nation.

Chances are it will be government owned and run and as hinted at the interview, it seems only accredited investors will have access to the platform, but as a starting point, it's not a bad move by the Russians. 

Some reading might already be familiar with the name –Voskhod was the name of the Soviet space program that beat the US's Gemini program to the first EVA (space walk) and, specifically, Voskhod1 and 2 were the names of the two spacecraft that spearheaded the program.

Whether this offers up any clues what Russian policymakers' intentions are (to once again get a jump on the Americans, perhaps?) is unclear.