Russia finance ministry pays staff wages in digital rubles

A number of staff at Russia's Finance Ministry first received wages in digital rubles on Oct. 1, 2026. The ministry announced the step on Oct. 2, saying employees had opened digital-ruble accounts on the Bank of Russia platform used for budget payments. Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 4 that the payments were the ministry's first payroll run in the central bank digital currency.

Participation was voluntary, the ministry said. Staff chose whether to receive part or all of their pay in the new form. Crypto.news wrote on Oct. 4 that the ministry presented the move as a live test of salary payments through the platform.

The announcement did not disclose how many employees took part or the total sum paid. It also did not state what share of pay the volunteers directed into digital rubles. The notice named no individual recipients and gave no department-level breakdown.

The payroll test follows a wider rollout that began on Sept. 1, 2026. From that date, the largest banks and retailers were required to support digital-ruble payments, the ministry stated. That step moved the currency beyond closed pilots into everyday commercial use. Cointelegraph noted that the Sept. 1 expansion covered the biggest lenders and merchants first.

A federal-budget pilot ran through 2025 with about 16 million digital rubles in outlays. Those funds covered salaries, stipends and state contracts, according to ministry records described by crypto.news. The sums were small against total federal spending. Officials presented the pilot as a check of the payment rails before wider budget use.

From January 2026, federal budget spending in digital rubles was no longer confined to a fixed list of outlay types. The ministry said agencies could use the form for a wider set of budget payments. That change opened the way for salary cases such as the Oct. 1 run. The release did not list which agencies had adopted the option before October.

The rollout schedule extends to 2028 and turns on bank license type and turnover. Banks with a universal license and annual turnover above 30 million rubles must connect during 2027, while banks with a basic license follow in 2028, the central bank timetable shows. Small outlets and locations without network access carry exemptions. Crypto.news added that the phased dates were meant to give smaller firms more time.

Fees for payroll use are set by the Bank of Russia tariff schedule. The platform charge for payroll operations stands at zero through 2026, and a charge of 67 kopecks per payroll instruction takes effect on Jan. 1, 2027, according to the tariff terms cited by the ministry. The ministry presented the zero-charge period as support for early adoption. The release did not state whether other transaction types carry different charges.

One digital ruble equals one ruble in cash or bank deposits. The unit is a direct liability of the central bank and moves across the Bank of Russia platform rather than across commercial-bank balance sheets. Individuals face a top-up cap of 300,000 rubles per month into digital-ruble wallets, the rules state. The cap limits inflows without limiting the ruble's face value.

The ministry framed the Oct. 1 payroll as a step toward routine budget use rather than a one-off trial. Employees who joined the test opened accounts on the same platform that handles other budget payments. The announcement said the process ran through established budget-payment channels. It did not say when the ministry plans to extend the option to all staff.

Crypto firms and payment watchers have tracked the project as one of the largest live central bank currency tests. Russia began retail pilots in 2023 with a small set of banks and merchants before widening access in stages. The Finance Ministry's own payroll use puts the issuer's staff inside the system the ministry oversees for budget execution.

External restrictions form part of the backdrop. An EU package dated April 20 restricted EU support for work connected to the digital ruble, according to Cointelegraph in its account of the payroll news. The restriction covers technical and related assistance within the scope of that package. The ministry's Oct. 2 release did not address the EU step.

What remains undisclosed is the scale of the Oct. 1 run. The release gave no headcount, no ruble total and no schedule for the next payroll in digital rubles. It also gave no data on error rates, settlement times or staff uptake beyond confirming that a number of employees were paid. Those figures, if published later, would show whether the test expands across the ministry.