Russia's central bank plans to release a digital ruble prototype before the end of the year

According to the news of The Block on March 12, the Bank of Russia plans to issue a prototype version of the digital ruble platform for the first time before the end of 2021. Alexey Zabotkin, head of the Monetary Policy Department of the Central Bank of Russia, said that the central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure is expected to be in place by the end of 2021, but he added that in the early stages of the test, users will not be able to use real currencies for transactions.