According to a former government minister, the launch of Russia’s CBDC, the digital ruble, will play an important role in spurring de-dollarization. MP Sergei Kalashnikov, formerly the Minister of Labor and Social Development and the first deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Committee on Economic Policy made this claim recently. He said that the digital ruble will help the country fight against black market dollar trading. It would not be wrong to say that the black trading phenomenon has already dogged Russia since Soviet times.

Digital Ruble Can Help De-Dollarize Russia

The Central Bank has spoken up about the “cross-border” potential of its coin. On the other hand, the lawmakers have suggested allowing foreign investors to buy “millions” of tokens. However, the fact is that the ruble’s worth against the USD has fallen sharply since the beginning of this year, dropping by over a third in the past 12 months. The Central Bank has been trying quite hard to reverse this trend. It has high hopes for its fast-tracked CBDC project. The bank even launched an 11-city pilot last month. It includes 600 Russian citizens and 13 commercial banks trialing “real-world” transactions.

According to the minister:

“In the currency exchange sphere, the digital ruble will dramatically reduce the possibility of official currency [going] to the black market. That will adjust [the ruble’s] value. And therefore, of course, the wider use of the digital ruble will affect the dollar’s growth against the ruble.”

Reports claim that Moscow seems keen to use the token as part of its de-dollarization efforts in the international trade sector. On the other hand, the Kremlin has also been trying to de-couple from the dollar since 2014. Chinese thinkers have also advised that digital fiats will help the country and its allies “break USD hegemony.”