Since March 11, the Estonian authorities have suspended the acceptance and canceled the issuance of initial applications for e-Residency from citizens of Russia and Belarus. The corresponding order is published on the website of the local Police and Border Guard Department.
At the same time, online residents with Russian and Belarusian citizenship, whose digital identity card expires, can re-apply for a new digital identity card.
"Each applicant will be assessed for potential new risks and their past contribution to the economy and culture of Estonia. The deadline for considering an application for the issuance of a digital identifier is 30 days, but it can be extended to verify the facts," the department said.
Holders of a valid digital identity card of an electronic resident from among the citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus will keep it, but will also be subject to increased control, including by the Tax and Customs Department, the Financial Intelligence Service and the Internal Security Service of Estonia.
In case of doubts about the purpose of using electronic residence, the Police and Border Guard Department has the right to suspend the validity of digital certificates or cancel them.
As it became known to the ForkLog editorial board, many representatives of the cryptocurrency community have already received messages with the following content:
"Your certificate No. <...> has been suspended. The use of electronic services or an electronic signature with a suspended certificate is not possible."
Estonia imposes restrictions in accordance with international sanctions against Russia and Belarus due to the military invasion of Ukraine.
"[We want] to avoid the risk that companies created under the Estonian e—residency program will be used to finance a military offensive against Ukraine and circumvent sanctions," the authorities said.
The e-Residency program provides foreigners with access to electronic services of the public and private sectors of Estonia and the opportunity to remotely create Estonian companies to work in the EU market for a period of five years. It is used by many owners of the cryptocurrency business.
According to official statistics, from December 1, 2014 to March 7, 2022, the identity card of an electronic resident was issued to 6022 citizens of Russia and 1611 citizens of Belarus. Of these, as of March 7, 2022, 4421 citizens of the Russian Federation and 902 citizens of Belarus have valid certificates.
Recall that in 2020, the Estonian authorities revoked the licenses of more than 1,000 companies operating in the field of digital assets.
In January 2021, the Ministry of Finance introduced a bill tightening the requirements for cryptocurrency companies. If it is approved, service providers will have to re-apply for a license with payment of state duty. Control over their activities will be transferred from the Financial Intelligence Unit to the Financial Supervision Authority.
The Ministry of Finance also discussed the possibility of suspending the issuance of new licenses until the entry into force of this decree.
In October 2021, the head of the Estonian Money Laundering Data Bureau, Matis Meaker, proposed to revoke all previously issued cryptocurrency licenses from cryptocurrency companies. Later, the department explained that this would not lead to the automatic cancellation of previously issued licenses.
At the beginning of March 2022, the operator of the Garantex exchange refused the Estonian license to work with virtual currencies after discovering a number of systemic violations in its activities.