PANews reported on April 17 that according to Reuters, a senior official of the Russian Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday that Russia should develop its own stablecoins pegged to other currencies after the stablecoin USDT held by digital wallets associated with Russia was frozen last month. Russian regulators have allowed the experimental use of cryptocurrencies in international payments, which have become more difficult due to Western sanctions. Before USDT was frozen, it was popular among Russian companies as a payment tool. Osman Kabaloev, deputy director of the Ministry's Financial Policy Department, said: "The recent freeze has made us think that we need to consider creating internal tools similar to USDT, possibly pegged to other currencies."
Russia’s central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina has opposed the use of cryptocurrencies for domestic payments, but she said Russian businesses are actively testing international cryptocurrency payments as part of an experiment.
