For the past few years, the Russian government has introduced a lot of taxes. Not only sanctions led to this, but also a failed domestic and foreign policy.
All I wanted to say is that the Russian government is trying to impose a tax on everything they can reach, and the fact that cryptocurrency is unattainable for them makes them ban it. It pisses them off)
The Russian government can still enforce taxes on crypto by requiring centralized exchanges to provide records of a customer's trading activity. Any crypto that is exchanged to Fiat, will automatically be subject to taxation by the government. It's easier to do this with Bitcoin than privacy coins, because of its transparent blockchain ledger. I think that the only reason why Russia has been so interested in banning Bitcoin is to remove people's ability to gain freedom over their own money. After all, the government wants to maintain sovereignty on the local economy. A truly decentralized economy that's outside the control of third parties, goes against what was established by central banks in the first place.
If Russia decides to isolate its citizens from using the public internet, everyday people will find it hard to interact with Bitcoin transactions. Only geeks or tech gurus will be able to use Bitcoin more thoroughly as they know how Bitcoin works by other means. Despite a local ban, Bitcoin will still be alive and running on other countries worldwide. With a VPN and Tor, people will still be able to use Bitcoin regardless of a government ban. This is all thanks to the decentralized nature of Blockchain technology. If it wasn't that way, I believe that the Russian government would've been successful in banning Bitcoin by now. Only a collective effort of governments worldwide to try to stop Bitcoin use in the mainstream world, will be proven effective in the long run. Just my opinion
