Russia aims to debut a novel blockchain system to evade sanctions imposed by other nations after the country invaded Ukraine earlier this year. Russia’s Rostec Group will construct the blockchain-based system.

Russia’s new blockchain system

All the banks in Russia were excluded from the SWIFT payment network in February when the EU and the US imposed sanctions on the nation for initiating a war and invading Ukraine. Rostec, a firm that includes several tech firms under it, is currently working on alternatives for the SWIFT to protect its foreign trade transactions.

The blockchain platform on which Russia developed the international payments system is called CELLS and was established by the Novosibirsk Institute of Software Systems (NIPS), an affiliate of the Rostec Group. 

The platform will allow people to initiate transactions in the national currencies of the countries associated with it and “could provide a real alternative to the international payment services provided by the SWIFT system.”

CELLS will also allow users to create digital wallets to store cryptocurrencies, per Rostec Group’s statement.

Russia stands with crypto

It seems that Russia is now standing in support of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain industry. Notably, at one time, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) asked the government to put a blanket ban on these blockchain-based tokens. However, as reported by Cryptonary in a previous report, a senior official from the CBR recently revealed that the bank is open to allowing crypto use for cross-border payments.