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- They did not keep the form: the digital ruble will be introduced no earlier than 2026
They did not keep the form: the digital ruble will be introduced no earlier than 2026
The launch of the digital ruble was postponed until at least 2026 — most likely, it will not work until next summer, according to the State Duma and the expert community. It was supposed to be launched on July 1, 2025, but the dates were postponed indefinitely, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said at the annual market meeting with the regulator on February 27. According to experts, the main reason is that the infrastructure for the digital ruble is not ready, and the largest banks have only recently joined and have not yet had time to check the main operations — the testing of the project lags behind the initial roadmap by about a year. Officially, the regulator says it wants to finalize the project and implement smart contracts at the time of its launch, for example, to track payments from the budget. What caused the hitch and why the digital ruble is needed at all is in the Izvestia article.
When the digital ruble enters circulation
, the Central Bank has decided to postpone the mass introduction of the digital ruble. This was stated by the Chairman of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, at the annual market meeting with the leadership of the Bank of Russia, which took place on February 27.
The launch of the digital ruble will be delayed for a maximum of a year, but most likely only for six months, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, told Izvestia. This means that the project can be operational either by the beginning or by the middle of 2026.
There is no point in greatly postponing the launch of the digital ruble, because the infrastructure for this is ready from the Central Bank and most large banks would be ready by July 1, the deputy said. Small credit institutions have problems — many simply do not have enough resources to ensure the development of the necessary technological base.
The market participants interviewed by Izvestia have a different opinion. They expect the mass adoption of the digital ruble by the summer of next year.
The digital ruble is the third form of money. It will be issued by the Bank of Russia in addition to the existing cash and non-cash, they can be exchanged in a one-to-one equivalent. The digital ruble will differ from non-cash ones in that it will be stored in digital wallets in the Central Bank, rather than in commercial banks. However, it is assumed that access to these online wallets will be realized through the applications of ordinary financial organizations: a person will have a familiar non-cash account and an account in digital rubles displayed next to it.
The infrastructure, the platform itself, is not yet ready for the full implementation of the digital ruble, said Alexey Voylukov, MBA professor of business practice in digital finance at the RANEPA, former vice president of the Association of Banks of Russia (at whose congress Nabiullina spoke the day before). According to him, the testing of the project is about a year behind the initial roadmap.
For example, the verification of payments with the state budget was supposed to be completed last year — in 2024, they already wanted to pilot transactions with individuals and companies. However, the very first trial operations with the Ministry of Finance were conducted only recently, at the end of January. Transfers with legal entities also began to be tested belatedly — only at the end of last year, Voylukov said.
The reason for postponing the mass introduction of the digital ruble is primarily infrastructural and technical, Igor Rastorguev, a leading analyst at AMarkets, agreed. In addition, the delay is necessary in order to ensure the trust of citizens and businesses in the new form of money.
What's wrong with the digital ruble
It is not fixed anywhere when the digital ruble should be introduced into mass circulation. Earlier, only the Central Bank named the dates — by July 2025, Alexey Voylukov emphasized. However, at the time this was reported, another half of the systemically important banks had not joined the testing. Sber and T-Bank joined the pilot only at the end of December 2024. And it is simply impossible for large players to redesign their systems so quickly.
— There are currently no ready-made box solutions that can be purchased and integrated into your processes. However, even this will take at least a year or even a year and a half for a large bank. The mass launch of the digital ruble will take place no earlier than the summer of 2026, and this is if we rush to implement it," says Alexey Voylukov.
Alexey Tarapovsky, founder of the Anderida Financial Group, agrees with this. A full-fledged launch should be expected no earlier than next summer. This will require a lot of technical improvements, the expert noted.
It is also necessary to carry out stress tests, Alexey Voylukov emphasized. Currently, according to the Central Bank, only about 1,700 citizens and about 30 companies are participating in the pilot. This is too little: if 9 million people connect to the system, it can get up.
Dmitry Tselishchev, Managing Director of the Rikom-Trust investment company, is confident that it will take even more time. In his opinion, the mass introduction of the third form of the national currency is technically possible no earlier than 2027. It requires significant and expensive refinement, as well as adaptation to the real conditions of the business and the financial system of the country.
How the digital ruble will work
One of the reasons for postponing the launch of the digital ruble is to refine the possibilities of its use in so—called smart contracts, Elvira Nabiullina said. These are transactions that are automatically executed when certain conditions occur — their execution is monitored by a software code based on blockchain technologies. For example, the payment will take place only after the shipment is delivered to the customer.
"Now we see interest in smart contracts from banks, businesses, and the government. The digital ruble represents much more opportunities for smart contracts, and we want to make this area one of the key ones," said the head of the Central Bank.
First of all, they want to use the digital ruble in budget processes, Anatoly Aksakov specified. At the same time, the technology is most actively used in investment projects with the participation of the state. For example, the initiative will affect the sphere of public procurement, noted economist Andrei Barkhota.
— In addition, the movement of funds on the accounts of the Federal Treasury will be carried out precisely in the form of smart contracts with the digital ruble, the expert added.
This will help the targeted use of funds, said Sergey Zaversky, Head of the Analytical Research Department at the Institute for Integrated Strategic Studies. Clearer identification of recipients of subsidies and other types of assistance is becoming possible.
The introduction of smart contracts can mean faster and more accurate benefits, reduction of bureaucracy for companies, and increased control over budget expenditures for the state, said Denis Taradov, partner of the Unicon Audit and consulting Group.
At the same time, there are still many myths and misunderstandings around the digital ruble in the public field. The Central Bank reported that on social networks they write about plans to abandon cash because of the digital currency and about the mandatory transfer of all citizens to it. The regulator called it another myth. Even fraudsters are already using the alleged transfer of pensions to a third form of money to deceive citizens, href="https://iz.ru/1839276/anton-belyi-natala-ilina/platezom-opasen-v-rf-poavilis-pervye-mosennicestva-s-cifrovym-rublem">писали previously, Izvestia. It will take a lot of educational work for ordinary Russians to start using the new form of Russian currency, Dmitry Tselishchev noted.
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