Russia's digital ruble is not going to help the country avoid US sanctions

Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) such as the Russian digital ruble do not pose a threat to United States sanctions, according to US Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

In a CNBC interview on Wednesday, Adeyemo argued that despite the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies, the US dollar "will remain the dominant currency in the world".

Adeyemo pointed out that digital assets represent "an opportunity in many ways" for the US economy, but also come with many challenges such as money laundering. However, there are ways to combat these in order to benefit from the growing industry. The officer said:

"We believe that ultimately, in partnership with countries around the world, we can address this risk by asking digital asset creators to be more strict about anti-money laundering rules." Adeyemo also pointed out that digital currencies from global central banks do not come with any risks related to US sanctions.

"We believe that even if a digital ruble or other digital currencies are introduced, there is still a possibility that our sanctions will affect their economies simply because the world economy is still interconnected," he said.

The official went on to say that Russian companies do a lot of business around the world, with much of it being done in US dollars with American financial institutions, because the American economy remains the largest economy in the world.

"As long as this is the case and we make the necessary investments, we will continue to have the opportunity to use our sanctions system to ensure that we prevent what it was designed to do," said the official.

Adeyemo's remarks came shortly after sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska urged the Russian government to use Bitcoin (BTC) as a tool to avoid US sanctions and weaken the US dollar. "The US realized long ago that uncontrolled digital payments not only undermine the effectiveness of the entire economic sanctions mechanism, but can bring down the dollar as a whole," he argued last month.

In October, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister also reiterated Russia's plans to reduce the US dollar's share of the country's international reserves in order to avoid the challenges posed by US government sanctions.

The US has imposed a number of sanctions on Russia in recent years, including: on suspicion of poisoning opposition politicians, influencing elections and cyber attacks.