Central Bank: No Place for Stablecoins in Russian Economy, Only Digital Ruble Will Do

cryptonews.com:

The Central Bank of the aggressor state Russia, says that it is against the idea of citizens making use of fiat-, oil-, or gold-pegged stablecoins – despite calls for the launch of such tokens from the Ministry of Finance.

The newspaper Vedomosti quoted a Central Bank spokesperson as insisting that “private” stablecoins carry “increased levels of risks,” as “the pool of assets underlying them does not belong to the owner.”

The bank was responding to recent comments from Ivan Chebeskov made at Russian Creative Week, a summit of domestic creative industry players. Chebeskov is the head of the ministry’s financial policy department, and answered a question from an attendee about the need for Russian stablecoins following his speech at the event.

Chebeskov stated that “in general,” he was in favor of the launch of such tokens “if a business, or investor has the need to pay or invest in this way.”

He added:

“If they need new tools like these, we will always support such initiatives. This is the right path to take if we are to develop [new] technology.”

But the Central Bank warned that in the case of stablecoins, the redemption of such tokens “at face value of the assets used as collateral is not guaranteed.” The spokesperson added that “the price of stablecoins, in fact, is not very stable.”

The ministry, meanwhile, has claimed that Russian stablecoins could be tied to a range of “stable physical assets,” such as the fiat ruble, gold, oil, or grain. Critics might well counter that all of these assets have experienced more than a little price volatility in recent months – and that it might be a stretch to call any of them “stable.”

The ministry has been at loggerheads with the bank for several years on the issue of crypto. The