Central Bank of Russia has piloted Russian CBDC testing

The Central Bank of Russia has piloted a test program in the Tatarstan region to test smart contracts for digital ruble.

The Central Bank of Russia has approached the Tatarstan region with a proposal to help pilot the digital ruble, with a specific accent on the test of intelligent contracts, as initially indicated by Business Gazeta. More specifically, the objective is to experiment with the conditional expenses of the funds reserved for specific purposes, which will be done via the bank’s testing platform.

The Tatarstan Ministry of Finance has accepted the CBR proposal and has already established a working group that will supervise the tests of digital ruble transactions in the region.

After the tests, the Tatarstan Ministry of Finance and the CBR will define the requirements for the targeted use of hypothetical budget subsidies. These requirements will then be formalized in an intelligent contract. The experience should end in the third quarter of 2025.

While the CBR had Initially planned A broader deployment of the digital ruble from July 1, 2025, these plans were postponed, as announced by the chief of the CBR Elvira Nabiullina. A new launch date will be announced later.

According to Nabiullina, large -scale deployment will only take place after in -depth tests and consultations with banks on the most viable economic model for customers. However, the pilot program has successfully increased so far.

To put this evolution in context, the law on Launch of digital rubble in Russia Coming into force in August 2023, with the first test phase from August 15. However, the Central Bank of Russia has delayed its national deployment, arousing concerns that the initiative could be completely removed.

The launch of the digital ruble by the Central Bank of Russia is part of an increasing trend where national banks explore and test the digital currencies of the Central Bank. In September 2024, Reuters reported that 134 countries explored the launch of national CBDCs.

Several countries have already launched their CBDC tests, including China, Korea,, Papua New Guinea,, United KingdomTo name only a few. The European Central Bank also manages its multi -year tests of Digital euro. In addition, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria have already launched their CBDC, becoming pioneers in the digitization of national fiduciary currencies.