Russia’s Pulkovo airport starts accepting digital rubles

St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, one of Russia’s busiest, is accepting digital rubles for parking with plans to expand the range of services that can be paid for with the national ￰0￱ airline hub’s first digital ruble payment comes well ahead of the gradual introduction of the state-issued digital currency for public use, scheduled to begin a full year from ￰1￱ pays for parking with digital rubles Pulkovo has become the first Russian airport to integrate the digital ruble as a payment method, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday, quoting Northern Capital Gateway, the company that runs the air transport facility. A visitor used their smartphone to scan a QR code and their mobile banking app from VTB Bank, which co-owns the consortium, to confirm the ￰2￱ they were issued a receipt through a POS terminal, the operator’s press service ￰3￱ customer paid for parking at Pulkovo, which is the Russian Federation’s second-busiest airport, after Sheremetyevo International Airport in the capital ￰4￱ managing firm made it clear it intends to apply the new payment option to other services, allowing travelers to pay with digital rubles for business lounge and “fast track” services, for ￰5￱ Capital Gateway’s Chief Financial Officer, Olga Korochkin, elaborated: “We are confident that over time the digital ruble will become a common payment method, but today it was the ￰6￱ airport that was the first to implement this technology for passengers.” Russia is pushing its digital currency The digital ruble has been under development for quite a while, until Russian President Vladimir Putin urged this year to step up efforts for its mass ￰7￱ Bank of Russia began work on the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2021, and the necessary legislation came into force in ￰8￱ started later that ￰9￱ authorities initially planned to make it available to everyone in July 2025, but then Russia’s main financial regulator suggested postponing its introduction until next ￰10￱ a speech at the ￰11￱ International Economic Forum in June, Putin noted testing has been going on for nearly two years, calling on Russia’s government and monetary authority to speed up all procedures and determine the dates for the ￰12￱ after, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) published an updated schedule for the gradual introduction of the CBDC in stages starting from Sept. 1, ￰13￱ timetable was later approved by the Russian parliament as ￰14￱ ongoing trials within the pilot project, which began in August 2023, involve a limited number of participants, including banks, companies, and private ￰15￱ ruble transactions mounting By June 2025, when the new launch dates were announced, digital ruble transactions had reached 100,000 in number, as previously reported by ￰16￱ August, the Russian majority state-owned VTB and a Russian property development firm called PIK sealed the first real estate deal utilizing digital rubles for payment.

A client of the bank, formerly known as Vneshtorgbank, bought an apartment in the Russian capital’s Novoe Ochakovo residential complex, using the Russian digital ￰17￱ conduct the transaction, both the real estate developer and its client had to open digital ruble accounts with the CBR via VTB’s online platform and acquire the regulator’s ￰18￱ pushing its own digital currency, Russia has been taking steps to curb crypto usage. A series of new laws and legislative amendments are targeting peer-to-peer exchange and other transactions involving decentralized digital ￰19￱ the end of August, Russian media revealed that the Bank of Russia intends to impose stricter requirements for banks conducting crypto-related operations to allegedly reduce associated risks.

A new bill filed by the Russian government seeks to punish businesses accepting cryptocurrency payments, which were banned with the law “On Digital Financial Assets” in 2021. Thus, the ruble, including its latest digital variant, is likely to remain the only legal tender in the country, despite Russian companies using crypto to circumvent international sanctions in foreign trade. Don’t just read crypto ￰20￱ ￰21￱ to our newsletter. It's free .