There are rumors of some russian politician saying that Putin is considering buying Bitcoin reserves. I believe this has been happening for years now. While they FUD the are buying OTC bigly. Approving Futures was a way to manipulate the price downwards and keep the price down. Once they've shrunk the OTC market, they will pump it to ATH, and keep repeating the cycle as they accumulate. They understand they cannot kill Bitcoin, only become bigger players
It was not a politician
It was some random Russian economist saying something to that tune and then many Western media outlets were quick to pick up the "news". I don't know about Putin considering buying a few bitcoins now and then, but if this "plan" was actually enacted even for 1/100th of the amount rumored, prices would have already skyrocketed. In fact, I'm quite surprised that many distinguished and high-merited posters here seem to actually believe in this rumor. By that I don't mean idle talks and empty theorizing, of course, but rather taking this nonsense seriously
I didn't say I believed anything, I said there were some rumors. In any case they would buy OTC so it wouldn't have a direct impact on the market anyway. Of course they wouldn't go balls deep OTC, just small accumulation over time, otherwise they would dry the OTC market. Intelligence agencies aren't stupid, Bitcoin is on their radar.