Russia’s Pulkovo airport starts accepting digital rubles

St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, one of Russia’s busiest, is accepting digital rubles for parking with plans to expand the range of services that can be paid for with the national coin.

The airline hub’s first digital ruble payment comes well ahead of the gradual introduction of the state-issued digital currency for public use, scheduled to begin a full year from now.

Russian pays for parking with digital rubles

Pulkovo has become the first Russian airport to integrate the digital ruble as a payment method, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Monday, quoting Northern Capital Gateway, the company that runs the air transport facility.

A visitor used their smartphone to scan a QR code and their mobile banking app from VTB Bank, which co-owns the consortium, to confirm the transaction. Then they were issued a receipt through a POS terminal, the operator’s press service detailed.

The customer paid for parking at Pulkovo, which is the Russian Federation’s second-busiest airport, after Sheremetyevo International Airport in the capital Moscow.

The managing firm made it clear it intends to apply the new payment option to other services, allowing travelers to pay with digital rubles for business lounge and “fast track” services, for example.

Northern Capital Gateway’s Chief Financial Officer, Olga Korochkin, elaborated:

“We are confident that over time the digital ruble will become a common payment method, but today it was the St. Petersburg airport that was the first to implement this technology for passengers.”

Russia is pushing its digital currency

The digital ruble has been under development for quite a while, until Russian President Vladimir Putin urged this year to step up efforts for its mass adoption.

The Bank of Russia began work on the central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2021, and the necessary legislation came into force in 2023. Trials started later that year.

Russian authorities initially planned to make it available to everyone in July 2025, but then Russia’s main financial regulator suggested postponing its introduction until next year.

In a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June, Putin noted testing has been going on for nearly two years, calling on Russia’s government and monetary authority to speed up all procedures and determine the dates for the launch.

Soon after, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) published an updated schedule for the gradual introduction of the CBDC in stages starting from Sept. 1, 2026. The timetable was later approved by the Russian parliament as well.

The ongoing trials within the pilot project, which began in August 2023, involve a limited number of participants, including banks, companies, and private individuals.

Digital ruble transactions mounting

By June 2025, when the new launch dates were announced, digital ruble transactions had reached 100,000 in number, as previously reported by Cryptopolitan.

In August, the Russian majority state-owned VTB and a Russian property development firm called PIK sealed the first real estate deal utilizing digital rubles for payment.

A client of the bank, formerly known as Vneshtorgbank, bought an apartment in the Russian capital’s Novoe Ochakovo residential complex, using the Russian digital currency.

To conduct the transaction, both the real estate developer and its client had to open digital ruble accounts with the CBR via VTB’s online platform and acquire the regulator’s approval.

While pushing its own digital currency, Russia has been taking steps to curb crypto usage. A series of new laws and legislative amendments are targeting peer-to-peer exchange and other transactions involving decentralized digital money.

At the end of August, Russian media revealed that the Bank of Russia intends to impose stricter requirements for banks conducting crypto-related operations to allegedly reduce associated risks.

A new bill filed by the Russian government seeks to punish businesses accepting cryptocurrency payments, which were banned with the law “On Digital Financial Assets” in 2021.

Thus, the ruble, including its latest digital variant, is likely to remain the only legal tender in the country, despite Russian companies using crypto to circumvent international sanctions in foreign trade.

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