Russia’s President Signs Digital Ruble Bill into Law

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Russia’s President Signs Digital Ruble Bill into Law

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has signed the digital ruble bill into law, allowing the country’s central bank to issue its own digital currency. The new amendments to Russia’s Civil Code will allow the digital ruble to be used for payments alongside other methods, with accounts managed by the central bank. The Bank of Russia has been working on the CBDC project since 2020, and began piloting the system with a number of Russian banks in February 2021.

The digital ruble may provide a way to circumnavigate the financial restrictions imposed on Russia by the West, and was initially viewed by the Bank of Russia as a tool against sanctions and a way to control government spending. According to the head of the parliament’s committee on financial markets Anatoly Aksakov, the digital ruble will also allow controlling and limiting the ways private citizens can spend them. “For example, parents would be able to control what their kids spend their pocket money,” Aksakov told Parlamentskaya Gazeta in an interview earlier in July.