The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is working on improving payments with other countries by developing gateways between its own payment systems and those abroad. This effort is part of an ongoing project to circumvent restrictions imposed on Russian citizens due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine. The Bank recently proposed to cooperate with Turkey - both nations have already continued building payment gateways, as well as finding alternative payment solutions such as prepaid cards.

Recently, Elvira Nabiullina, the Governor of the Bank of Russia, expressed interest in potentially allowing the experimental use of cryptocurrencies in order to make international payments. She indicated that the Bank remains opposed to using cryptocurrencies inside the country, but may be more willing to allow their use in international settlements with authorized organisations. The Bank intends to conduct these experimental settlements under specific legal regimes and to apply the same rules to other digital financial assets.

This could potentially provide a considerable degree of freedom for citizens of the affected countries who currently face banking and payment-related restrictions when traveling or conducting transaction overseas. As of now, Russians have been facing problems since Visa and Mastercards suspended operations as part of economic sanctions. This means that the ability to easily make payments has become difficult abroad, leading to the development of the modern payment gateway system.

This same strategy might be used by other countries in the future which find themselves facing financial restrictions. It looks like more experiments and research with the use of cryptocurrencies is required before they could be truly accepted as a global payment system - however, the progress made by Russia in the area of international settlements could potentially provide a boost of confidence to those who support their usage.



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