Putin Signs ‘CBDC, Digital Assets Payments’ Bill into Law
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing firms in the country to use digital financial assets including the digital ruble in international payments on March 11.
Moscow has fast-tracked the bill in an apparent bid to help domestic companies use digital tokens and CBDCs to evade sanctions.
The bill was hurried through the State Duma, the lower Russian parliamentary house, in late February this year.
After passing its second and third readings in the Duma, the bill was hurriedly passed on to the upper house, the Federation Council, on March 6.
The new law appears to be the brainchild of the State Duma’s Committee on the Financial Markets. The committee approved key amendments on February 21.
The Russian media outlet RBC reported that the law will come into force on its “date of official publication.” This is with “the exception of a number of provisions, which will come into force later.”
The law establishes a regulatory framework for “conducting foreign trade transactions using digital assets as a means of payment.”
The Committee’s Chairman Anatoly Aksakov said that using “digital assets” in foreign trade transactions would “help Russian importers and exporters work more effectively with friendly countries.”
US, UK, and EU-led sanctions have all but frozen Russian banks out of the international trade picture, and put an effective end to dollar-denominated trade.
But Aksakov claimed that digital asset-powered trade could “partially mitigate the impact of sanctions on Russia.”
Aksakov has also stated that several Russian allies are “very interested” in using digital assets and CBDCs in trade deals with Moscow.
The law Putin signed on March 11 gives Russia’s Central Bank new regulatory powers over the payments sector.
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