The Russian government wants to accelerate the introduction of a digital ruble – and now claims that all citizens will be able to use the CBDC in 2024.
Until now, the central bank has claimed that Russians will have to wait until 2027 for a nationwide rollout. However, in recent weeks, senior government officials have indicated that they favor faster adoption of CBDC.
RBC quoted Finance Minister Anton Siluanov as saying that “in 2024, all Russians will be able to use digital wallets in rubles for payments”.
Siluanov recently spoke positively about the introduction of CBDC. He announced that his ministry will start pilot payments at the Treasury early next year. The minister said that Moscow can use the coin for social benefits and issuing state subsidies.
Siluanov reiterated his recent statements about the CBDC, claiming that the digital ruble “technology” is “developing rapidly.” He said:
There has been a drop in the number of citizens trading crypto – with citizens staying away from major overseas trading platforms.
All Russians will be able to use the digital ruble from 2024
The ministry has already indicated that it wants to experiment with a “tagged” digital ruble for child benefits and pensions in 2024.
The minister repeated this intention in his latest statements. He told the participants of the Russian fair and forum:
“The digital ruble will show us how money is used. [If the coins are paid out as child benefits, they will only be spent on childcare and not for other purposes. There is no room for fraud and abuse, which sometimes happens.”
So far, the central bank has been more reticent about setting a timeframe for CBDC rollout. The bank has so far refrained from saying that the digital ruble could be used for cross-border payments.
Until recently, such bold claims were reserved only for the more optimistic government officials, who even talked about possible interoperability between the digital ruble and the digital yuan. But now there are early signs that the bank also believes its coin could be used outside the country.
On December 7, the bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, told a banking forum that “digital financial instruments” – which may include CBDC – have “great prospects” in international payments.
In January, Siluanov explained that foreign traders and nations who want to trade cryptocurrencies with the Russians can do so if they are for them “better value” coin.
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