Russian FM: Launching new system for cross-border payments, ‘no restriction’ on digital currencies

Russia has been hit by thousands of western sanctions after it launched the war on Ukraine

Russia is launching a new alternative system for cross-border payments, which will have no restriction on the use of digital currencies, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

“We are launching an alternative system of payments based on modern technologies (digital financial assets, digital currencies),” the Russian state-owned TASS news agency quoted Siluanov as saying on April 24.

The minister added that digital currencies could be used for settling cross-border payment obligations, and the discussions related to it are at a nascent stage.

“Digital currencies could be used in cross-border payments. This is just at the earliest phase of discussions, but the future lies with the use of the digital ruble, the digital yuan, and other similar currencies,” he said.

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The payments system that is being planned will be “bound by no restrictions”, the minister noted. “Two parties come to an agreement, make settlement payments, and no other country could step in and freeze such payments,” he further added.

Siluanov’s statement comes at a time when the West is attempting to use sanctions to curb Russia’s bilateral trade with countries in the Global South.

Moscow has long been pushing for dollar-free trade in a bid to surpass the barriers which arch-rival, the United States, has imposed through the web of sanctions in response to Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine.

Last week, the Bank of Russia stated that the entire system being used for cross-border payments could be transformed. The new system could be based on national digital currencies, it added.

“We are paying special attention to international payments and settlements, in order to remove barriers for the expansion of economic ties with friendly countries. We have required infrastructural solutions and we are ready to adapt them to the requirements of our partners,” the central bank’s Governor Elvira Nabiullina said on April 19.