The digital ruble is no different to other CBDCs

Is the digital ruble the CBDC you’ve been waiting for your whole life? We hope so because it’s almost here.

If everything goes according to plan, the legal framework for the Bank of Russia’s digital ruble (notice we didn’t type “Russia’s digital ruble”) will be ratified sometime in the next four weeks.

The traceable, programmable, and extremely centralized digital currency will be released into the wild after it completes a pilot program involving thirteen Russian banks.

CBDCs are bad, but the Russian CBDC good—Russian state media has sprung into action. RIA Novosti published an article on March 27 extolling the virtues of this “third form” of “national” currency.

We’ll summarize. The digital ruble:

• “is not a [decentralized] cryptocurrency.” It is “exclusively” issued and controlled by Russia’s central bank.
• “is another convenient payment tool.”
• is very safe and secure! Russia’s central bank “insures your funds, and the regulator will immediately block suspicious transactions.”
• is very transparent! “The digital wallet takes into account not just the history of operations, but actions with each ruble.”
• is programmable! “Smart contacts [allow you to] send currency from wallet to wallet under certain conditions.”
• is so convenient that it doesn’t even need the internet to work.
• can be used to “pay for all goods and services.”
• “will simplify mutual trade.”
• Did we mention it was convenient?

Very compelling. Purely for scientific purposes, let’s examine what people who aren’t paid by the Russian government are saying about this friendly digital token.

Edward Slavsquat

Russia’s Great Reset: Facing reality

A reader recently alerted me to an intriguing article published by Thomas Röper, the curator of Anti-Spiegel. In it, Röper argues that Ernst Wolff—an authoritative voice on Great Reset shenanigans—is wrong to list Russia as an active participant in the COVID-triggered New Normal…

Read more

7 months ago · 84 likes · 108 comments · Edward Slavsquat

Katyusha.org (pro-Putin, pro-SMO, patriotic/conservative alt media) wrote on March 22:

The digital ruble is the implementation in Russia of the World Bank’s/WEF global project for Central Bank Digital Currencies. As for the question: “where does it say that the Bank of Russia intends to replace cash?” There is a direct answer—in the statements of the top officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia.

Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Aleksey Moiseev: “The digital ruble is a replacement for the cash ruble.”

[…]

The digital ruble will eventually replace cash, but the transition period will be long, said Sergey Shvetsov, First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. […]

A financial analyst with many years of experience in the management of commercial banks, Alexander Lezhava, echoed our assessment: “Why is the digital ruble dangerous for all of us? The fact that, unlike all cash / non-cash systems that exist today, it is programmable … The central bank will have complete financial information about each of us.”

Edward Slavsquat

The digital ruble: A friendly CBDC you can trust

If you live in a country with a central bank (you do), there is a decent chance that soon you will be coerced into using a programmable digital token pegged to a basket of commodities, including—but certainly not limited to—Panopticon total surveillance, soul-crushing wage slavery, and the tingly …

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2 months ago · 86 likes · 82 comments · Edward Slavsquat

Local media (madaganmedia.ru) wrote on March 23:

Experts believe that the introduction of the digital ruble will lead to total control by the state. Each ruble will have its own code—an analogue of the number on a banknote. If each ruble is marked, this means that there will be no problems tracking absolutely all monetary transactions of Russians—the authorities will be able to find out where the citizen received the money, to whom he sent it, what he paid for, what he bought.

In general, life will be under digital surveillance, economists say. Private life will simply disappear as a concept. It will be easy for the authorities to punish citizens, to restrict, to prohibit. Unwanted people can easily be disconnected from the digital wallet. And that’s it—an [unwanted] person has nothing to eat, nothing to pay for an apartment. […]

With the widespread introduction of the digital ruble, people will no longer be able to hide a single penny. For example, poor families can now survive on tax-free rental apartments, gray wages or benefits they receive from the state, not showing their full income. According to economists, the share of the informal economy in Russia reaches 30% or more, and about 20 million people receive “envelope” salaries.

With the advent of the digital ruble, a digital concentration camp will begin for Russians … In fact, this will be the beginning of the introduction of the same QR code that they tried to introduce during the pandemic—now the authorities will finish what they started, experts warn.

A different local media outlet reported on March 24:

The global financial elite is going to introduce digital money into circulation.

The well-known Russian economist Valentin Katasonov told DEITA.RU about the implementation of a real scam of the century, when the top of the “golden billion” will replace the usual fiat money for everyone…

Also, as the expert noted, the most important aspect of the scam will be depriving people of the right to secretly spend money, because with the advent of their digital counterparts, all human transactions will be under complete control by the operators of the new system.

A family values watchdog (created by a Russian Presidential decree) has this to say about the digital ruble:

• “Central bank digital currencies are a globalist project of the IMF and the G7.”
• “Hopes to circumvent sanctions with the digital ruble are illusory.”
• “A foreign element base makes the entire infrastructure of the digital ruble vulnerable to espionage and hacker attacks from outside.”
• “With the help of the digital ruble, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation will be able to accumulate confidential data on payments and users on an unprecedented scale. This data can be used to spy on citizens’ private transactions, obtain sensitive information about individuals and organizations, and control them. The risk of leaking this data. The ability to block digital money from people they don’t like at the touch of a button.”
• “Over time, the digital ruble can completely displace cash in circulation, and as a result, it will displace the rights and freedoms of citizens!”
• “An electronic-digital concentration camp requires electronic money, the movement of which is easy to track and which can be blocked by any person at any time. For more complete control, the digital ruble can be tied to human biometrics.”

Some of the liveliest intellects of our time—such as the formidable Russia expert Thomas Röper—insist that unlike other CBDCs, the digital ruble will never replace cash.

The digital ruble is different, you see. It is a very friendly and benign form of voluntary currency that will bypass sanctions and secure Russia’s “economic sovereignty.”

Yes, of course.

Edward Slavsquat is a reader-supported blog-thing. You are a reader. Just sayin’.