Russian CBDC by 2025? What's happening with the digital ruble - Top Crypto Websites, Federal Reserve Crypto, Voyager Crypto Exchange, AI Current & More.
Russian CBDC by 2025? What’s happening with the digital ruble

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation’s (CBR) central bank digital currency (CBDC) project has been progressing quickly. News of the initiative first emerged in 2020, and a regulatory bill was introduced in 2022, which has now been approved by the lower chamber of the Duma.

However, the release of the “digital ruble” to the public won’t happen until 2025–2027, as CBR First Deputy Governor Olga Skorobogatova recently revealed.

This timeline is still optimistic compared to the global context. According to a recent PwC report, only around 24 CBDCs may be live by 2030. But for a country looking for ways to trade internationally under heavy financial sanctions, this timeline may seem slow.

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Ups and downs of the digital ruble

In 2017, the CBR announced its interest in exploring the idea of a digital currency. At the time, Skorobogatova highlighted the importance of developing a CBDC and that the CBR would investigate soon. Nevertheless, the bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, didn’t consider it a top priority and regarded it as something to be explored in the medium to long term.

In 2022, the CBR revealed it planned to introduce the digital ruble across all banks in the country by 2024. It explained that the implementation would be done in stages and involve extensive testing and infrastructure development. According to the central bank, the digital ruble would coexist with traditional cash and non-cash payment systems, giving consumers more flexibility in their transactions.

In February 2023, Skorobogatova made a public announcement regarding the first consumer pilot of the digital ruble, scheduled to commence on April 1, 2023. The trial would include the participation of 13 local banks, numerous merchants and real consumers.

That same month, Gazprombank, a banking subsidiary of state-owned energy corporation Gazprom and one of the pilot’s participants, publicly proposed giving banks more time before implementing the CBDC.

Indeed, the bank’s worries were understandable, as one report from auditing firm McKinsey estimates that Russian banks could lose $3.5 billion in commissions and fees in five years to a CBDC.

The pilot’s launch was eventually delayed along with the passage of the digital ruble bill in the Duma.

The amended bill establishes key legal definitions such as “platform,” “participants” and “users,” while also outlining general guidelines for the CBDC ecosystem.

Under the current framework, the CBR assumes the role of the primary operator for the digital ruble infrastructure and holds the responsibility for safeguarding all the stored assets.

As the primary objective of the CBDC is to serve as a payment and transfer method, users of the digital ruble will not have the option to open savings accounts. Individual customers will enjoy free payments and transfers, while corporate clients will incur a fee of 0.3% of the payment amount.

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Waiting for 2025?

On July 6, CBR’s Skorobogatova said every citizen would be able to open the wallet, receive digital rubles and use them “on the horizon of 2025–27.”

Skorobogatova specified that a lot depends on banks and their readiness to adopt the necessary infrastructure, as private banks would facilitate digital ruble transactions within their standard web 3.0 apps, with the whole process of the central bank’s mediation more or less invisible to the final customer. Skorobogatova emphasized, “The digital ruble is not a cryptocurrency or a stablecoin, where there’s often no emitter or you don’t know one.”

Aleksandr Podobnykh, head of the Saint Petersburg branch of the Association of Chief Information Security Officers — a cybersecurity consulting firm involved in CBDC legislation — believes the 2025–2027 deadline is realistic and that test infrastructure is ready to pilot the digital ruble:

Podobnykh also mentioned the upcoming updates to Federal Law 115, regulating Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing procedures. The proposed amendments would take into account new forms of exchange to help financial monitoring agencies analyze CBDC transactions.

Elena Klyuchareva, senior associate at Russian law firm KKMP, also sees no anomalies in the 2025–2027 deadline.

“The delay in digital ruble implementation may be connected mainly to technical aspects,” she told Cointelegraph. “The infrastructure envisaged by the CBR concept is complicated and shall facilitate not only online but also offline transactions and ensure a high level of cybersecurity.” And, Klyuchareva added, such infrastructure will be based mainly on domestic software solutions due to international sanctions, including the top websites for crypto, the high street crypto, the top crypto websites, the federal reserve crypto, the voyager crypto exchange, the one crypto, the ai current, and the now crypto.

The decision to postpone the implementation of the Russian digital currency shouldn’t be seen as a failure of the project, but as an attempt to develop a stable, well-balanced solution, Klyuchareva concluded.

Given that only four CBDCs are currently in circulation, Russia will probably be among the first adopters — even if the digital ruble doesn’t launch until 2027.

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