Russia is moving forward with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) as President Vladimir Putin signed the digital ruble bill into law on July 24, according to an official government document.
With this approval, the digital ruble law is officially scheduled to take effect from Aug. 1, 2023, with all but one rule ready to be enforced.
Article number three — which includes amendments to several Russian federal laws, including those related to bankruptcy and inheritance — is expected to take effect from August 2024.
The new legislation officially empowers the Russian central bank to launch the first CBDC pilot with real consumers in August. Previously, the government expected to roll out trials in April in collaboration with 13 local banks, including heavyweights like Sberbank.
According to the newly signed law, Russia’s central bank will be the principal operator of the digital ruble infrastructure and will hold responsibility for all the stored assets. The digital ruble is designed to serve as a payment and money transfer method, and does not provide for investment purposes.
The digital ruble is expected to act as the third form of money alongside cash and non-cash rubles. Russian citizens will not be forced to use the CBDC, and the use of the digital ruble will be a voluntary choice left up to individuals to decide, Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina reportedly declared on July 24. She stated:
“No one is going to force anyone into the digital ruble […] But we really hope that it will be more convenient and cheaper for both people and businesses, and they will start using it. This is a new opportunity.”
According to Bank of Russia deputy governor Olga Skorobogatova, the government doesn’t expect mass adoption of the digital ruble in Russia before 2025 or even 2027.
The news comes soon after Russia’s State Duma — the country’s lower house of parliament — passed the digital ruble bill in the third and final reading on July 11. The Federation Council subsequently approved the bill on July 19. According to official records, the digital ruble bill was initially registered in December 2022.
While quickly progressing with CBDC legislation, Russian lawmakers have continued to postpone the introduction of cryptocurrency regulation, following a series of delays in the past.
In May, State Duma official Anatoly Aksakov promised to pass four bills related to crypto mining, taxation and international settlement crypto. However, the bills do not seem to have progressed much since.
Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.
Jeremy Hunt will promise further tax cuts if the Tories win the next general election and will accuse the Labour Party of not being honest about how it will fund its spending pledges.
The chancellor will give a speech in London on Friday in which he will accuse his shadow, Rachel Reeves, of resorting to “playground politics” with her criticism of the high levels of taxation on UK households.
Mr Hunt will also reiterate his ambition to eradicate the national insurance tax – which the Tories have already slashed twice in a bid to move the polls – where they currently lag 20 points behind Labour.
Labour has attacked the policy as an unfunded £46bn pledge and likened it to the policies that saw Liz Truss resign from office after just 44 days as prime minister.
The chancellor was previously forced to make clear that his desire to abolish the “unfair” national insurance tax would not happen “any time soon”.
The chancellor described national insurance as a “tax on work” and said he believed it was “unfair that we tax work twice” when other forms of income are only taxed once.
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The overall tax burden is expected to increase over the next five years to around 37% of gross domestic product – close to a post-Second World War high – but Mr Hunt will argue the furlough scheme brought in during the pandemic and the help the government gave households for heating both needed to be paid for.
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Last week: National Insurance to be axed ‘when it’s affordable’
“Labour like to criticise tax rises this parliament thinking people don’t know why they have gone up – the furlough scheme, the energy price guarantee and billions of pounds of cost-of-living support, policies Labour themselves supported,” he will say.
“Which is why it is playground politics to use those tax rises to distract debate from the biggest divide in British politics – which is what happens next.
“Conservatives recognise that whilst those tax rises may have been necessary, they should not be permanent. Labour do not.”
James Murray, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury,said: “There is nothing Jeremy Hunt can say or do to hide that fact that working people are worse off after 14 years of economic failure under the Conservatives.”