The press release said: "The Russian Finance Ministry together with the Bank of Russia and BRICS partners will prepare a number of initiatives to improve the international monetary and financial system, which will focus in particular on the issue of creating the BRICS Bridge multisided payment platform".

According to the report, the first stages of testing will focus on "digital wallets, transfers between citizens, purchases of goods and services using QR codes and simple automated payments."

The Bank of Russia will be able to stipulate the characteristics of DFAs that may be acquired by non-qualified investors and the threshold of investment in such assets.

Further, all transactions with DFAs may be conducted only through digital financial asset exchange operators, which can be banks and exchanges, as well as other legal entities, provided they meet specific criteria.

The draft law also introduces the definition of digital currency that may not be a means of payment. Moreover, digital currency holdings, receipt and transfers will be deemed to be lawful only on their declaration.

The CryptoRuble will have the same value as the Ruble and people will be able to change it into real Rubles at any time.

Each person holding CryptoRubles and who cannot explain their provenance will be taxed at 13% of that amount.

If a person makes a profit from trading CryptoRubles, a tax will be levied at 13% of the difference between the buying price and the selling price.

Additionally, if the value of the CryptoRuble appreciates compared to the Ruble, a tax will be levied to make up the difference between the two; this will ensure that they stay around the same level.

It is not clear yet how the CryptoRuble will be applied in the real world and what technology it will use.

Communications Minister, Nikolai Nikiforov, stated:

“I confidently declare that we run CryptoRuble for one simple reason: if we do not, then after two months our neighbours in the EurAsEC will.”