Russia has been struggling to bypass sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe. Both the Russian government and companies have partially managed to steer clear of the Western control points with cryptocurrencies and other financial instruments. Now, they are aiming to use CBDC for settling transactions with China. The digital rouble has been in the works for a few years and is now in the testing phase.
According to Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the state Duma committee on the financial market, the issue of digital assets is attracting growing attention from society as problems with bank transfers have become increasingly frustrating. He stressed that the deployment of digital money is critical for evading systems controlled by "unfriendly countries."
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The development of the digital rouble prototype was finalized in December 2021. In February this year, the Bank of Russia, along with a pilot group of commercial banks, started testing the platform. According to the recent document, the government wants to connect all Russian banks and credit institutions to the CBDC system by 2024.
This step might be preceded by the launch of the digital rouble for settlements with China. The country has already launched a digital yuan as a legal tender, undergoing public testing since April 2021.
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"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," said Aksakov.
