SPIEF Highlights: Digital Ruble, Legal Mining and ‘Neuro-Bureaucrats’
On June 17, the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum concluded. According to the organisers, delegations from 130 countries attended, with many sharing new technological developments and financial solutions.
From a cascade of political statements and dubious performances, ForkLog has picked out the most important announcements and events concerning banks, cryptocurrencies and the IT sector.
Cryptocurrencies, DFAs and the digital ruble
• Sergei Altukhov, a member of the State Duma committee on economic policy, said that dedollarisation of external trade would be achieved through cryptocurrencies.
He also noted the growing role of the “cryptoruble” and other central bank digital currencies.
«It is prudent to consider opportunities to replace the dollar now. There will also be settlements in cryptocurrencies. In our country there already exists a market for payments using these instruments. It will be important to create the necessary legal framework so that our counterparties have the opportunity for cross-border settlements», — added Altukhov.
• First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova said that crypto operations are blocked by unfriendly countries.
«We see that, from the point of view of unfriendly countries, even payments in cryptocurrencies are not only monitored; many payments are blocked», — she explained.
According to her words, the central bank would not want businesses to lose money from using digital assets, but is ready to test the instrument within an “experimental legal regime”.
• Sberis ready to participate in pilot cryptocurrency operations.
The bank’s deputy chair Alexander Vedyakhin said the initiative is being implemented within the framework of external economic activity:
«As soon as the regulatory framework is formed, of course we will use these tools. Of course, Sber is interested».
• Ivan Chebeskov, Director of the Department of Financial Policy at the Ministry of Finance forecast that the DFAs market will grow to 5–10% of Russia’s stock market volume within five years.
He argues that the development of the market for digital financial assets in Russia is not possible without tapping the funds of Russians who invested in cryptocurrencies.
«Among our citizens, between 10 and 15 trillion rubles are accumulated in crypto assets; to develop the DFA market, one should compete for those funds rather than enter into competition with brokers. […] I do not think that the exchange and professional participants will sit idly by while DFAs take bread from them», — noted the head of the department.
• Head of the State Duma committee on the financial market Anatoly Aksakov said that Russian organisations will issue DFAs worth tens of millions of rubles by year-end.
He cited data showing that such assets are currently issued for around 4 billion rubles, but they are “pilot” and not for profit or funding. Aksakov expected the market to develop more actively.
According to Rostelecom’s chief financial officer Sergei Anokhin, the main advantages of DFAs are cheaper financing, instrument flexibility and the speed of deployment.
• PSB Groupregistered a platform for issuing digital DFAs.
With it, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs will be able to tokenise debt obligations, precious metals, raw materials, commodities, products and services, real estate, and also attract financing from investors, said Maksim Khrustalev, director of the platform.
«Unlike the classic capital market, the issuance and circulation of DFAs is handled solely by the platform operator; there are no other financial intermediaries, which significantly reduces the costs of organising and executing deals», — he noted.
• The first smart contracts with the digital ruble will appear in the second half of 2023.
According to Anatoly Aksakov, the technology will allow the state to “see more clearly and more visibly how the funds allocated are used.” He also said that the bill on the digital ruble has already cleared the approvals needed for its adoption in the second and third readings in the Duma.
«The state can become the main driver of this process. And later, when practice is developed, it is quite possible that companies and individuals will begin to use it more actively», — explained the deputy.
• Bank of Russiaproposed reducing fees for digital ruble payments.
First Deputy Chair Olga Skorobogatova said that the central bank could set a merchant fee for accepting digital rubles at no more than 0.3%. Currently, payments by bank cards and through the Faster Payments System average about 2.5%.
«We hope the State Duma will ensure the law’s passage and, in July–August, we will begin real operations with the digital ruble», — emphasised Skorobogatova.
• VKontakte will launch an NFT marketplace by year’s end.
«Any user will be able to mint and post their collection, run a drop, buy tokens on the primary and secondary markets. All operations will be payable in rubles. We plan to add various recommendation mechanisms so users can easily find interesting collections. The marketplace will offer promotion tools for creators», — said Marina Krasnova, CEO.
Mining
• In the Finance Ministry, mining was described as the “white swan” of the Russian economy.
According to the ministry’s estimates, miners in Russia mine cryptocurrency worth about $4 billion annually. Chebeskov noted the potential taxation of such activity. By his calculations, the industry could bring around 20 million rubles to the state treasury per year.
«I am confident that many companies are watching and waiting for the law to come into force so they can invest. Without a solution for legitimate conversion and ensuring the necessary liquidity, the industry will not breathe», — said the managing director of fintech firm Lighthouse.
According to Anatoly Aksakov, the State Duma is preparing to pass four mining-regulation bills in July. He added that cryptocurrency mining could be enshrined at the state level as early as 2024.
• The Ministry of Energy backed the legalisation of cryptocurrency mining.
«We want miners, as a category of consumers, to be defined. We also hope taxation will appear for this category of consumers. It is important for us that we can identify them, and we understand that certain regulatory features will have to be introduced for them», — said Deputy Minister Pavel Snikkars.
• Irkutsk region raised the question of regulating mining.
Governor Igor Kobzev said that a law to legalise cryptocurrency mining as an entrepreneurial activity is being developed “in those territories where there is enough free electrical capacity to do so.”
«Mining must not come at the expense of developing production or the construction of socially significant facilities. It must not hinder economic processes in Irkutsk Oblast. Mining should be formalised as entrepreneurial activity; there are no other options. Pay taxes», — added the region’s head.
Banking sector
• Head of VTB Andrey Kostin urged banks to connect to the Chinese SWIFT analogue.
The businessman said there has been “a surge in cross-border payments between Russia and China — more than 200% in the last quarter” via VTB alone. Enterprises of small and medium size should benefit from the Cross-border Interbank Payment System, he argued.
«Moreover, the yuan is the only friendly currency that can be effectively used to balance settlements for Russian counterparties with partner states in a trade surplus in Russia’s favour», — Kostin said.
• Head of Sberbank Herman Gref said that a competitor to the Mir system is needed.
He said financial firms are already exploring an alternative to the National Payment Card System (NSPK) — the operator of Mir cards. However, he conceded no concrete plans yet:
«It would be nice if NSPK changed its status and was sold to market participants, so banks could join it. Or, in the end, another market player would emerge to enable competition and price competition».
During the discussion, Stanislav Bliznyuk of Tinkoff Bank joined and, by his account, another five to ten institutions might join. The NSPK head Vladimir Komlev argued that such competition would primarily benefit banks, not individuals. Deputy central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina called the idea of a second payment system an “outdated approach.”
«Now we see competition among different payment methods — SBP, QR-code-based services, and the competition has intensified», — Nabiullina observed. The NS PK and SBP are owned by the Bank of Russia, which presently owns the first.
• The Deputy chair of the Bank of Russia accused banks of hampering the development of SBP.
Olga Skorobogatova said the regulator holds “conversations with business to understand the benefit” of SBP in retail networks. To address this he proposed a bonus programme.
She added that the first deputy also reported on joint plans with CBT for biometric acquiring — payments for goods by facial recognition.
• Tinkoff Investments will launch broker services for children.
CEO Dmitry Panchenko said the project for citizens aged 14 and above would launch in July–August this year “with a clean and convenient scheme.”
«We will set some restrictions. Probably up to 10,000 rubles as a limit. For instruments, of course, no futures — only what does not require testing or compliance», — he added.
Artificial intelligence
• A session AI Journey was held with Sber, the AIRI Institute and Skoltech.
The head of the AIRI Bioinformatics group, Olga Kardimon, spoke about creating a neural network model GENA-LM trained on the complete human genome assembly. The project will assist in researching and constructing DNA chains.
Executive Director of Data Research at Sber, Denis Dimitrov, said that the path to AGI lies in using fundamental and multimodal models such as Kandinsky 2.1.
According to Skolkovo head Evgeny Buranov, AI is a natural tool for ESG risk assessment — it allows testing whether the energy transition trajectory aligns with sustainable development principles.
• Maksut Shadaev, Minister of Digital Development, highlighted four directions for AI development in Russia:
- Simplifying government services. Shadaev plans to continue developing the Gosuslugi project into a “one-line and one interface” format.
- Oversight and control. The official believes AI will help assess risks and simplify decision-making by determining the necessity of checks. As an example, he cited the work of tax authorities.
- Allocation of state funding. Shadaev noted that AI technologies can provide a “second opinion” on budget spending.
- Spatial planning. He said AI will help design infrastructure, road networks and the construction of socially significant facilities.
• Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko expects AI industry revenue to reach
«Of course, artificial intelligence is a very powerful tool for boosting the efficiency of routine processes. It can replace many existing, traditional professions. And more than 20% of companies in the country have already started using AI in some form», — added the deputy.
• LDPR ‘revived’ Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the form of a neural network
The neural network portraying Zhirinovsky is a three-dimensional blue image with blazing eyes. Creators say the artificial politician was trained on articles, scientific papers and speeches of the deceased party leader.
In general the AI convincingly mimicked its ‘teacher’: it mocked US President Joe Biden, sent along Gennady Zyuganov, Russia’s perennial rival from the Communist Party, to the dacha, and forecast a bright future for Russia. It took the AI about 10–30 seconds to generate a response.
• Head of Sber, Herman Gref described the only problem facing AI in Russia.
According to him, the challenge for the sector is the supply of hardware — ASIC chips and other specialised tools produced by only a few companies around the world.
He also proposed allowing AI to take on some government decisions, arguing that “the technology is objective and does not take bribes.” The Sber chief noted that implementing governance tasks involves two components: data and behavioural economics. In the latter case, replacing humans will be far more difficult, the executive cautioned.
• Promobot presented a robot-barista and an automated “cybercafe”.
Cybersecurity and blockades
• In Kaspersky warned of data-leak risks in Russia.
The managing director, Anna Kulashova, noted that in 2023 the number of such incidents could grow. According to the firm’s analytics, the volumes of publicly released significant datasets of Russian organisations rose 33% from January to May compared with the same period last year.
«Artificial intelligence is a tool, and like any tool it carries both opportunities and threats. It will be used on all sides, including attacks leveraging ChatGPT», — she emphasised.
Kaspersky’s revenue in the B2B segment rose by more than 20%, and in the B2C segment by 10%.
• Deputy Prime Minister
stated about the reduction of blocking of malicious sites.
«The number of blocked phishing sites and those that steal personal data is decreasing. This shows that measures taken by the state are working. Yet Russia faces mass, coordinated actions by the collective West», — Dmitry Chernyshenko explained.
According to Roszdravnadzor, more than 57,000 sites that illegally distributed medicines have been blocked in the country.
• Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein called blocking YouTube an premature measure.
He said there are no grounds for blocking the video platform “for ten lifetimes,” and noted Russia does not yet have its own platform of comparable scale.
«Until we have a product able to compete with YouTube in full, blocking it would be premature, in my view», — Khinshtein said.
Meanwhile, the head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadaev assured that a ban on WhatsApp “is not being discussed.”
• The Ministry of Digital Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade are discussing a ban on parallel import of mobile devices from Samsung and LG.
«We are currently discussing a ban on parallel import of heavy computer equipment — servers and storage systems — from unfriendly countries such as HP, IBM, and so on. We are also considering restrictions on parallel import of computers and mobile devices from Samsung and LG, because Chinese equivalents are not inferior. And no discussion of an iPhone ban», — Shadaev said.
Computers, IT and heavy machinery
• In talks between authorities and business about the prospects for quantum computers in Russia, a strategy was discussed on the eve of the Forum for Future Technologies in Moscow. Rosatom has been tasked with developing a quantum computer, and Russian Railways with quantum communications. The forum will run 9–14 July 2023 and focus on financing and developing the “supercomputer” technology.
«We are opening new technological horizons: quantum technologies, biotechnology, digital worlds and realities», — said Ruslan Yunusov, co‑founder of the Russian Quantum Centre.
• KAMAZ chief Igor Kogogin and billionaire Ruben Vardanyan have invested about $1m each in the project “Atom” for electric vehicles.
«I was a cash asset that I needed to move into the “charter” of Atom. And that is how the project started», — boasted Kogogin.
The chief designer of KAMAZ Sergei Nazarenko noted the advantages of autonomous vehicles. The company estimates that robot vehicles could run 21–22 hours a day with refuelling and servicing breaks. He also sees potential in automated dump trucks and tractors.
• Herman Gref failed to start a new Lada model for officials on the first attempt.
Autovaz chief Maxim Solkov said the premium car’s engine would not start due to the gear being engaged during start.
The company also unveiled a new crossover, the Lada X-Cross 5 with a price around 2.5 million roubles depending on configuration.
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