Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Central Bank of Russia, said that the digital ruble was already being tested and that the bank was gearing up for real-world digital ruble transactions, Russian publication Vedomosti reported.
The idea of a Russian central bank digital currency has been in the works for over a year.
Nabiullina also said that Russia is looking to widen the pool of countries that accept the central bank’s MIR, a payment system that offers an alternative to Visa and Mastercard, which suspended operations in Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine.