Russia Approves New Measures Against Money Laundering of the Digital Ruble

The Federation Council has approved a law that extends AML regulations to participants in the digital ruble platform.

On May 20, the State Duma passed the document in its second and third readings. Initially, the proposed legislation included centralized oversight of transactions involving the asset by the Central Bank. However, the final version allocates responsibilities between the regulator and commercial banks.

“The control is divided based on how users will place orders for transactions with digital rubles on the platform—either through a bank or directly with the operator,” the Central Bank commented in a statement.

Banks will continue to play a role in customer identification, detecting suspicious transactions, and implementing other financial monitoring measures.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank is empowered to track transactions, categorize clients by risk level, and interact with supervisory authorities.

It’s worth noting that the law concerning the digital ruble came into effect on August 1, 2023. In the same month, the Central Bank launched a testing program that, at the time of writing, involves 15 banks and approximately 50 companies.

At the end of 2024, the Bank of Russia, the Ministry of Finance, and the Treasury conducted tests of specific operations involving the asset as part of the budget process.