With the escalation of the Russian-Uzbekistan conflict, Russia began to take various sanctions against the West. After "kicking out" the SWIFT payment system, although it did not cause a devastating impact, it undoubtedly brought a lot of inconvenience. Now, Russia will take another way to deal with the development of cross-border settlement system for the digital currency or gold of the central bank.

With the escalation of the Russian-Uzbekistan conflict, Russia began to take various sanctions against the West. After "kicking out" the SWIFT payment system, although it did not cause a devastating impact, it undoubtedly brought a lot of inconvenience. Now Russia has a new way to deal with it by using the central bank's digital currency or gold to develop cross-border settlement systems.

According to the local media "Business Daily", it is expected that the Russian digital ruble plan will be issued in the first quarter of 2023, and the Russian Central Bank will study two possible cross-border settlement methods. The first suggestion is that countries sign separate bilateral agreements with Russia for integration. The CBDC system will ensure that asset conversion and transfer between countries comply with the rules of the agreement. The second relatively complex mode is that Russia provides a similar hub to facilitate the payment connection between China, so as to interact with other countries and share common agreements and standards.

Alexey Voylukov, Vice President of the Russian Banking Association, may not change or improve the global political situation in Russia due to the introduction of the digital ruble, and the CBDC platform test can only be conducted in friendly countries with ready technology. Previously, it was reported that Russia planned to use its digital ruble to settle with China sometime in 2023. However, others believe that Russia's CBDC is not hindered by technology, but by politics. Roman Prokhorov, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Financial Innovation Association (AFI), felt that the first approach was relatively easy to implement, but it was not very promising for the bilateral interaction between China. Another option is "advanced". In his view, the initial two-way system may be implemented, and China is the most likely partner.

According to the data, the financial link between the RMB and the ruble has been continuously strengthened, and the dollar has been squeezed in the trading of the rmb in the Moscow exchange. According to the latest survey by PSB, the foreign exchange settlement rmb of small and medium-sized enterprises in Russia has exceeded that of Europe, which shows that rmb is very popular among Russian enterprises. The Director of the Relations Administration of the Foreign Supervisory Agency of the Ministry of International Cooperation of the Central Bank of Russia said that many Russian banks have access to the China Cross-Border Payment System (CIPS), which can facilitate the trade settlement between Russia and China. The first vice president of the Savings Bank of Russia, Vergasen, said that he hoped to establish a Chinese branch by the end of next year. At present, the Bank of Russia is communicating with the Central Bank of China, providing a large number of documents according to China's needs, and actively cooperating with China's review mechanism, indicating that Russia is full of sincerity. At the same time, according to Russia, Chinese regulators are very cautious and need to submit a large number of documents or types.

In addition, Russia is planning to launch the oil gold substitute, petrodollars. (PetroGold), linking gold with oil, liquidating oil with gold, and planning to establish a new monetary system in Asia to support gold or digital gold to stay away from the dollar. In addition, Russia has established more extensive trade and financial cooperation with India, Iran and Türkiye, and persuaded Middle East oil manufacturers to tell them that their future lies in Asia. Some analyses show that Russia is essentially moving closer to the gold standard to establish a new dual-ring monetary and financial system and link the ruble with gold. According to Simon Hunt Strategic Services, in addition to 2300 tons of gold reserves, Russia also has 2300 tons of gold reserves.

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Now Russia has a new way to deal with it by using the central bank's digital currency or gold to develop cross-border settlement systems. Both the central bank's digital currency and gold can be part of the strategy to prevent the dollar hegemony, sanctions and international commodity trading. Although the international situation is still very complex, this is undoubtedly the best opportunity to develop our own international payment system.