Federal Law No. 340-FZ: Russia’s Digital Ruble Framework

The law places the Bank of Russia at the center of the framework. It designates the central bank as operator of the digital ruble platform and requires it to organize and maintain the platform, set binding platform rules, open and maintain digital-ruble accounts, provide access, record balances and transactions, and support operational continuity. The Bank of Russia Board of Directors may set operator tariffs, compensation for platform participants, user-fee caps, transaction and balance limits, and schedules for credit institutions to support specified operations.

The platform connects three legally defined groups: the Bank of Russia as operator, participating payment institutions or eligible foreign banks as access providers, and users such as individuals, legal entities, and individual entrepreneurs. A user generally reaches the platform through a participating institution that maintains the user’s bank account or electronic-money balance. The participant may refuse access only where federal law permits.

A digital-ruble account is a separate type of bank account opened on the central-bank platform. The platform records each balance as an obligation of the operator to the user. Funding and withdrawal occur through transfers involving bank accounts or eligible electronic money, while digital-ruble transfers take place exclusively within the platform. A payment obligation is treated as discharged when the recipient’s digital-ruble account is credited.

• Digital rubles may not be attracted as deposits.
• Loans may not be extended in digital rubles, and balances do not earn interest.
• The operator may not use digital rubles recorded in user accounts.
• The operator generally may not dictate how a user spends digital rubles or impose restrictions not grounded in law or the account agreement.

The statute extends banking-secrecy rules to digital-ruble accounts, balances, and transactions. It also requires platform rules to address information security, fraud prevention, risk management, continuity, dispute resolution, and user claims. The operator and participants may process personal data for platform access and transaction purposes under the statutory framework. Disclosures to the competent AML authority remain permitted in the cases, manner, and scope prescribed by federal law.

Deferred provisions integrated digital-ruble balances into insolvency and enforcement procedures from January 1, 2025. Bankruptcy filings must disclose relevant accounts; specified proceedings can suspend account operations and move balances to a debtor’s main bank account. Bailiffs may reach digital rubles after insufficient conventional funds are found, with the platform operator executing the prescribed transfer. Related customs-collection provisions also took effect on that date.

The framework also addresses nonresident and cross-border use. Nonresidents may open digital-ruble accounts under Russian law and access the platform through authorized or eligible foreign banks. The operator may connect with a foreign state digital-currency system under an agreement where the platform rules provide a procedure. These provisions create legal capacity for interoperability but do not, by themselves, establish a live cross-border corridor.

The Bank of Russia’s Regulation No. 820-P supplies the platform’s implementing rules, supported by later instruments on information security, anti-fraud controls, risk management, continuity, and platform amendments. Real-transaction piloting began on August 15, 2023. The current text of Article 8 authorizes the Bank of Russia to define eligible pilot users, operation types, and value thresholds through August 31, 2026.

Large-scale access is governed by later Federal Law No. 248-FZ rather than the original 340-FZ alone. That later law starts a staged rollout on September 1, 2026 for major banks and specified large merchants, followed by further phases in 2027 and 2028. A February 2026 Bank of Russia update said basic transactions remained limited to pilot participants. Accordingly, 340-FZ is already legally operative even though broad customer and merchant availability remains phased. Use by individuals remains optional under the official rollout description.