Russian Federation Presents Bill on Digital Ruble to State Duma

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• Bank of Russia Testing Crypto for International Payments

The Russian Federation has submitted a draft bill regarding the digital ruble to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

 Russian lawmakers, led by the Chairman of the Financial Market Committee Anatoly Aksakov, have presented draft legislation on the central bank digital currency (CBDC) minted by Russia’s monetary authority – the digital ruble. The main purpose of the bill is to develop a necessary payment infrastructure for the CBDC and will allow Russian citizens, businesses, and the state access to fast, convenient, and low-cost money transfers according to reports.

Under the proposal, the Bank of Russia will be the sole entity responsible for managing the CBDC system and it will also lay out the steps necessary to create a digital ruble wallet and gain access to the network. The document submitted to Parliament codifies the digital ruble as the official currency of the Russian Federation and deems CBDCs issued by the central banks of foreign countries as non-domestic.

The digital ruble will be introduced as a third legal tender option for payments and purchases in Russia, along with traditional cash and other forms of money. Deputy Minister of Finance, Alexei Moiseev, said that the digital currency will be ready to implement in April 2023. The CBDC will enable the nation to increase the government’s control over the targeted expenditure of money from its budget, make targeted payments and optimize the process of recovering monies not spent. Reports also indicate that blockchain technology is being used to build the digital ruble which will make it possible to identify certain types of money and track their movements according to distinct digital codes, which are analogous to serial numbers that are also found on paper money.

Bank of Russia Testing Crypto for International Payments

The Bank of Russia is reportedly planning to test the use of crypto for international payments within the regulatory framework. The Deputy Chairperson of the Central Bank said:

We currently plan to test using cryptocurrency for international payments, meaning for international economic activities, within the framework of the regulatory sandbox.

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