Russia’s Digital Ruble Stalls on Its Own Shaky Mobile Internet

Rolling out a central bank digital currency requires at least one boring prerequisite: a working network. In Russia, that baseline is increasingly missing.

Speaking ahead of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sergey Katyrin, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, stated that widespread adoption of the digital ruble is premature. The obstacle is not public skepticism or cryptographic flaws, but the state's own habit of shutting down or throttling domestic mobile data.

Retailers and small businesses depend heavily on live mobile connections for register terminals, point-of-sale hardware, and online banking. According to Katyrin, frequent local connectivity blackouts already knock basic payment systems offline across the country. Layering another state-run digital currency on top of an unstable network simply introduces fresh operational risks for businesses rather than solving any practical payment problem.

The chamber acknowledged that the currency offers clear tracking utility for the state itself—specifically for earmarking public budget payments, grants, and procurement tenders. Beyond surveillance of state funds, however, commercial advantages remain vague. Cross-border settlement remains equally theoretical, requiring bilateral foreign agreements, compatible infrastructure, and foreign-exchange guarantees that do not yet exist.

Source: habr