The State Duma approved a project for the phased introduction of the digital ruble

The bill on the introduction of the digital ruble has received preliminary approval from the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Izvestia reports.

Now the document will be sent for consideration to the lower house of parliament, which will meet on May 20. According to information provided by the Central Bank and project participants, Russian financial institutions are already technically ready for a wider implementation of CBDC. However, the launch of the digital ruble into mass circulation is postponed, since the economic model, which should be beneficial for users, is not fully understood. In addition, issues of using smart contracts, which are of particular interest to banks, businesses and government agencies, are currently being actively discussed with market users.

“The mass introduction of the digital ruble will occur after the details have been worked out and consultations have been held on the economic model that is most attractive to the institutions’ clients,” the Central Bank of the Russian Federation stated.

It is expected that the testing stage will be expanded in terms of the number of participants and the range of available operations. This will allow testing various scenarios for the use of CBDC. If the law is adopted, this will be an important step towards the legal circulation of digital money in Russia.

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance proposed to the Russian government to change the legislation on the issue of using the digital ruble in the budget process.