It appears that Russia’s central bank is seriously considering taking international payments in the form of cryptocurrencies. The chairman of the Russian central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, spoke during the Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg about the possibilities, local news station reports Kommersant
International crypto payments?
The use of cryptocurrencies would only concern international payments. These are payments that have to be made to another country. Probably the plan to use cryptocurrencies for this has everything to do with the heavy sanctions that the West has imposed on Russia.
Russia is therefore desperately looking for a way out of these sanctions. So it may just be that the Russian central bank believes that by using cryptocurrencies for international payments, some of these sanctions can be circumvented. The use of cryptocurrencies within Russian society itself, however, is not desirable, says Nabiullina. This is really purely about facilitating international payments.
“Our position is that cryptocurrency should not be used as a calculation tool within the country… As for its use in international settlements, if it does not penetrate the Russian financial system, it is possible,”
Earlier, Nabiullina indicated that it is not necessarily against the idea of bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies in international payments, but now the plan is actually even encouraged by the central bank.
Russian central bank
That in itself is remarkable, because just a few months ago, the same central bank was still advocating to stop trading cryptocurrencies in Russia. to be banned completely† However, Vladimir Putin was personally against this idea. According to him, the crypto industry could be a valuable addition to the Russian economy.
Added to that, of course, is the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions, which have apparently turned the central bank’s stance quite a bit.
