Russia pays wages in digital rubles first time

Russia’s Ministry of Finance said on Friday that some of its employees had received their wages in digital rubles for the first time.

Being paid in the central bank’s digital currency is available for citizens of Russia on a voluntary basis, and began on Thursday, Oct. 1, according to a Ministry of Finance press release.

The ministry did not disclose how many participants were paid in digital currency or the total payroll amount.

During federal budget spending trials in 2025, about 16 million digital rubles ($192,245) was disbursed, so the ministry has applied proven rails to its own salary procedure, it said.

Work on the introduction of the digital ruble to the budget process is being carried out by the Bank of Russia together with the Ministry of Finance, according to the release.

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Cointelegraph had reported on July 2 that Russia planned to launch the central bank digital currency on Sept. 1, when major banks and retail companies began enabling transactions with the new currency.

The digital currency was to launch as a complement to Russia’s fiat currency, the ruble, and would initially be accepted by financial and credit institutions, Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti was cited as saying at the time.

The digital ruble, whose development began in 2021, was targeted by preemptive sanctions from European Union authorities, who announced restrictions on the currency in April.

The European Council said that the sanctions package was in response to Russia’s “war of aggression against Ukraine,” which it started in February 2022.

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