Russia Introduces Bill to Apply Money Laundering Controls to Digital Ruble Transactions

A group of lawmakers in Russia introduced a bill that would extend money laundering controls to digital ruble transactions. The proposal, spearheaded by the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov, establishes different responsibilities for platform participants and the Central Bank of Russia, which is appointed as the main AML entity of the system.

Russia Proposes to Apply Money Laundering Controls to Digital Ruble

Nations are preparing to introduce fiat-equivalent money laundering controls to central bank digital currencies (CBDC) transactions. A group of lawmakers introduced Bill No. 576830-8, titled “On combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism to transactions with the digital ruble.” The bill, spearheaded by Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, introduces a multi-level system for applying anti-money laundering (AML) controls to digital ruble movements.
Interfax reported that the Central Bank of Russia would receive the main functions of combatting money laundering and terrorism financing if this bill is passed. The bank would have to assess the risk degree of every platform participant to incur in suspicious transactions and would have the possibility of blocking them from accessing digital ruble services.

The bill also establishes that the Central Bank of Russia would have to report transactions designated as subject to mandatory control to Rosfinmonitoring, the national service for financial monitoring. The parties would agree upon the list of transactions subject to this classification at a later date.
Aksakov had declared before that the country had to establish “serious controls” over crypto after its legalization. Since 2022, Aksakov has been pushing for reforms that force cryptocurrency holdings to be reported to the state to avoid or control their usage in money laundering schemes and terrorism financing activities.
While the digital ruble is still in its pilot stages, Russian officials have stated that the CBDC might be launched in 2025, and the authorities are advancing these measures to prepare for a country-wide utilization of the digital asset.
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