Russia is on course to launch its CBDC early next year and use the new cryptocurrency in mutual settlements with China which already tested its digital Yuan, a senior Russian lawmaker said in an interview. The move aims at reducing the US hegemony over the global financial system, media reports said. Know how Russia and China will become best friends over crypto coins.
As stated by Cointelegraph, Russia's latest monetary policy update stated that the authority will begin to connect all banks and credit institutions to the digital ruble platform in 2024, which is supposed to be an important year for the country's presidential elections. Within that time, the country's central bank expects to complete 'real-money' customer-to-customer transaction trials as well as the testing of customer-to-business and business-to-customer transactions. In 2023, the Bank of Russia also aims to conduct beta testing of digital ruble-based smart contracts for trades through a limited number of participants.
"The topic of digital financial assets, the digital ruble and crypto coins are currently intensifying in society, as Western countries are imposing sanctions and creating problems for bank transfers, including in international settlements," Anatoly Aksakov, head of the finance committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, said in an interview with Russia's parliamentary newspaper.
With that objective in mind, Russia is looking at alternatives, he added.
"If we launch this, then other countries will begin to actively use it going forward, and America's control over the global financial system will effectively end," the Russian lawmaker said.
The digital ruble has been in the works over the past couple of years. It was primarily aimed at modernizing the country's financial system and speeding up payments. But given the sanctions, its implementation is being fast-tracked, and Russian banks are reported to be testing it.
Last March, the Bank of Russia announced it officially launched the digital ruble trial, completing the first CBDC transfers among citizens. At the time of the announcement, three banks out of 12 financial institutions in the CBDC's pilot group had already integrated the digital ruble's platform, with two of them finalizing a "full cycle of digital ruble transfers between clients using mobile banking applications," according to the bank.
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