Russian Parliament Passes Digital Ruble Bill

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, adopted a bill on the introduction of a digital ruble in Russia — the third form of the national currency — on Wednesday.

The document presents the basic concepts necessary for the introduction of the digital ruble.

The Bank of Russia's Board of Directors will set the tariffs on digital currency transactions. It is expected that digital money transfers and payments will be free of charge for regular consumers, while for business owners they will cost the equivalent of 0.3% of the transaction.

The digital ruble will be issued by the Bank of Russia, and people will be able to choose whether to use the digital ruble, cash or non-cash forms of national currency. Citizens and legal entities will have only one digital ruble wallet, but the funds will be available through any bank. However, it will not be possible to earn money on digital rubles since no interest will be charged on funds in wallets. It's also noted that a digital ruble wallet will not require access to the internet.

Up to 300,000 rubles per month will be feasible to digitize, but there will be no limits within the digital ruble platform itself.

It is planned to start testing the digital ruble in August, while its release to the general public is likely to happen in 2025.

In the future, digital rubles will also be used for cross-border payments.