The Digital Ruble of the Bank of Russia as a New Form of National Currency
Authors:   Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia named after V.Ya. Kikot, Shumilova Victoria 
Published: August 2022

Introduction: in recent years, significant changes have taken place in Russian and international law in the sphere of monetary circulation, primarily due to the rapid pace of global digitalization of the economy, where the development and implementation of national digital currency is one of the priorities in the development of information and payment technologies in many countries. Being a new form of the Russian national currency which will be issued digitally and whose stability of functioning and circulation will be provided by the state represented by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the digital ruble will fully perform all the functions of money in civil circulation. As a new and alternative method of making payments, it will combine the properties of cash and noncash funds: it will have the form of identification in the form of a unique digital code like cash issued in the form of banknotes with a unique number, and also will not have a physically tangible form and provide opportunities for remote payments and settlements like non-cash monetary funds. The purpose of the study is a comprehensive study of the essence of the digital ruble as a new form of the national currency, as well as the consideration of certain legal aspects of the introduction of the digital ruble into the national payment system of the Russian Federation, necessary for its successful integration into the sphere of monetary circulation without disrupting the stability of the financial system. Methods: the universal method (dialectical materialism); the general scientific methods (logical (induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis), systemic and functional); private legal methods (formal legal, comparative legal). Results: the paper discusses and resolves the contradictions in approaches to the definition of concepts used by the legislator in the legal regulation of the digital space. It is noted that before the introduction of the digital ruble into circulation, it must first be fixed in the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation. In this regard, the legislative framework has been identified, which needs to be reworked in order to make changes necessary for the legitimization of the national currency in digital form into the national payment system, in particular, for a clear correlation of the digital ruble with already existing legally fixed financial instruments. Conclusions: as a result of the study, the trends have been identified that have determined the need and expediency of integrating the digital ruble into the Russian legal field. It is proved that the concept of the digital ruble as an innovative phenomenon in the system of transformation of monetary circulation at the moment only establishes the ideological mechanisms of its functioning, while the uncertain nature of the digital form of the national currency of the Russian Federation requires careful full-scale study from a legal point of view. The inexpediency and invalidity of the attempt to identify the digital ruble with such payment instruments as non-cash funds and electronic money, as well as with such a specific financial instrument as cryptocurrency, has been proved. The author focuses on the fact that despite the existence of features common with electronic money, the digital ruble by its nature is a legal phenomenon different from it. In conclusion, the foreign experience of the process of creating and implementing the digital currency of the central banks of China and the United States is analyzed.