Gref, who heads Russia's largest bank and is very influential in forming government financial policy makes it clear that his bank will throw resources at blockchain to make it a priority to be a world leader in the space.

Then Putin goes out of his way to underline that he attaches great importance to Russia being a leader in this technology, even to the point of it being a national security consideration. He has often spoken of the internet and social media being a huge advantage to US intelligence agencies, and he doesn't want to get stuck in the same situation with blockchain.

He ends by vowing the necessary support to put Russia in front of the game.

Russia's embrace of blockchain and cryptos has been very pronounced, far more than EU states, Japan or China, not to mention the US. You can see all of our articles on this subject here.