Russia’s Finance Ministry has paid some employees in digital rubles for the first time, bringing the country’s central bank digital currency into regular government payroll operations from October 1.
The salary payments remain voluntary, and the ministry has not disclosed how many employees participated or the total value transferred. Employees who choose to receive wages in digital rubles must first open a digital ruble account through the Bank of Russia’s platform, while conventional salary payment methods remain available.
The move follows a series of government experiments designed to test the digital ruble in public spending. During 2025, the Finance Ministry and Federal Treasury processed nearly 16 million rubles in digital currency through pilot transactions involving selected salaries, stipends and government-contract payments.
Those trials provided a testing ground for the infrastructure before the digital ruble moved into broader government use. From January 2026, federal state-owned, budget-funded and autonomous institutions gained access to the system for eligible spending, while some institutions were also able to accept digital ruble payments for services.
The Bank of Russia had already prepared the infrastructure for payroll transactions. A June decision introduced specific platform tariffs for transfers from companies to individuals covering salaries and other employment-related payments. Payroll transfers remain free through the end of 2026, with a published fee schedule scheduled to take effect from January 2027.
The project is also developing under international restrictions. The European Union has prohibited support for the development of Russia’s digital ruble as part of its sanctions framework, while Russia has continued its domestic rollout.
For the digital ruble, the key test now moves from technical pilots toward sustained institutional usage. Government payroll provides another real-world application for the CBDC, while the staged expansion across banks, merchants and public institutions will determine how broadly the system becomes embedded in Russia’s domestic financial infrastructure.
