The Central Bank plans to start operations with the digital ruble in July-August

Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia, said that the Central Bank hopes to start real operations with the digital ruble as early as July-August this year. She announced this at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

“I expect that we will be able to start real operations already in July, in August,” Olga Skorobogatova said, commenting on the words of Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma committee on the financial market, that the law on the digital ruble would be adopted in June.

The introduction of the digital ruble should be completed in 2023, and its use will begin no earlier than 2024. The law on the issuance and circulation of the digital ruble gives the Bank of Russia the authority to manage the infrastructure for the operation of a new form of national currency. According to forecasts, the digital ruble will enter consumer circulation by 2030.

Digital rubles will store data on all previous holders. At the same time, as Alla Bakina, director of the department of the national payment system of the Central Bank, said in an interview “Arguments and Facts”the currency will not contribute to “total surveillance”, since data on transactions and balances in wallets will be protected by banking secrecy.

Anastasia Larina