- Russia’s lower house, the State Duma, has passed a bill requiring the nation’s major banks and companies with revenues over 120 million rubles to support CBDC payments by September 1, 2026.
- The requirement will eventually apply to all Russian merchants, with medium-sized businesses needing to support CBDC payments by September 2027 and small businesses by September 2028.
- In a recent survey of average Russians 51% of respondents said they wouldn’t use a CBDC, citing concerns over state surveillance and security vulnerabilities.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, known as the State Duma, has passed a bill requiring the nation’s major banks and all companies with annual revenues over 120 million rubles (AU$2.4 m) to support central bank digital currency (CBDC) payments by September 1, 2026.
Under the first phase of the bill’s rollout, small and mid-sized businesses will be exempt. Eventually though, all businesses will be required to support CBDC payments — medium sized firms by September 2027 and small businesses by September 2028.
The bill will also establish a free universal national QR code payment system to be run by the National Payment Card System, the same body that operates Russia’s Mir payment network.
Before becoming law, the bill will need to pass Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, and then be signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, these steps are considered to be procedural formalities and the Russian Central Bank has already announced September 1, 2026 as the official start of the rollout for the CBDC.
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Surveys Show Russians Not Keen On CBDC
The Russian Government may be forging ahead with their CBDC plans, but a survey conducted recently by Russia’s state-run VTsIOM found a whopping 51% percent of respondents weren’t willing to adopt the technology. Only 35% said they would use it.
The top reasons respondents cited for their reluctance to use the new system were concerns about government surveillance and potential security vulnerabilities.
Forty percent of survey respondents said they didn’t see how a CBDC provides any benefit over existing systems and only a tiny 7% said they felt well informed about the government’s plan.
Herman Gref, the chairman of Russia’s largest bank Sberbank, echoed the survey respondents’ scepticism, telling a Russian media outlet that he doesn’t “understand why an individual needs the option to use a CBDC. And neither do banks. And businesses, too. I still don’t really understand why this is necessary.”
Gref did concede a CBDC may be helpful for facilitating cross border payments.
Russia first launched a retail CBDC pilot project in 2023 and had initially planned to roll out a fully-fledged CBDC this year. However, progress has been delayed by resistance from merchants and large banks, including Sberbank.
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The Russian government has promoted a CBDC as an important part of modernising the country’s aging payments infrastructure and reducing its reliance on Western-controlled payment rails amid growing economic sanctions stemming from Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
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