Belarus CBDC Tracker

Belarus is in the pilot phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) development. The chair of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus said that the central bank will introduce its CBDC (the digital ruble) by the second half of 2026.

Current human rights and civil liberties concerns in Belarus include widespread surveillance, oppression of dissenting voices, and the persistence of government corruption. A CBDC could worsen these issues.

CBDC History and Development

In April 2023, state-owned news agency Belta reported that National Bank of the Republic of Belarus chair Pavel Kallaur said, “We are working on building a demo version, a platform to try it out,” and that it was learning from Russia’s CBDC efforts.

Belta reported in April 2025 that National Bank of the Republic of Belarus chair Roman Golovchenko said, “The digital ruble is one of our priorities. We are actively working on its creation. First of all, we are faced, of course, with the issue of preserving funds. This is a question of, as I call it, the colorability of these funds. That is, for the state, for example, it will be very important to be able to track how digital money passes through the entire chain.” He added that he believes the central bank will be able to introduce the CBDC by the second half of 2026.

Human Rights and Civil Liberties Concerns

Belarus received an 8 out of 100 in Freedom House’s 2023 Freedom in the World report. Unfortunately, there are many concerns regarding the treatment of human rights and civil liberties in Belarus. When it comes to the issuance or use of a CBDC, however, the most relevant issues are the use of widespread surveillance, oppression of dissenting voices, and the persistence of government corruption. A CBDC could worsen these issues.

“Authorities used a wide variety [of] illegal surveillance methods and other forms of unlawful privacy violations to control dissent and free speech, and to monitor opposition groups, activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens,” according to the U.S. State Department. Unfortunately, a CBDC could be used to greatly expand surveillance by putting financial records on government databases by default.

Belarus also has a history of clamping down on protestors. For example, when people protested the 2020 election of Alexander Lukashenko, the government detained thousands of people. In 2021, the government raided the offices of media outlets and froze the bank accounts of the Belarusian Association of Journalists. In that same year, Lukashenko gave the central bank “the right to prohibit the sale and purchase of currency or impose a tax on it and confiscate dollars and euros from the accounts of legal entities.” Unfortunately, a CBDC could be used as another tool in this effort. Across the world, governments have often turned to freezing and seizing the money of activists, political rivals, and protestors to undermine the opposition. A CBDC would make such initiatives easier by allowing governments to take direct control of each citizen’s finances.

It was also reported that “the number of prosecuted corruption cases was on the rise, and in January-June, 336 were convicted, of whom 112 were imprisoned, compared with 259 persons convicted in 2021.” Reports also indicated that individuals connected to President Alexander Lukashenko, “received preferential treatment from his regime in the form of monopolies, tax breaks, favorable contracts, and other mechanisms, often codified by presidential decrees signed by Lukashenka himself.” The existence of pervasive corruption is a major concern with CBDCs because it calls into question any promises that might be made by the government to limit surveillance, control, or other risks of CBDCs. Furthermore, the existence of corruption calls into question whether CBDC policies might be designed to exert political favoritism through subsidies, price controls, or other targeted restrictions.

For additional information on concerns regarding violations of human rights and civil liberties, see the following reports by Amnesty International, Financial Tyranny Index, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and the U.S. Department of State. For additional information on concerns regarding the risks of CBDCs, see the following webpage and report by the Cato Institute: The Risks of CBDCs and Central Bank Digital Currency: Assessing the Risks and Dispelling the Myths.

For additional information regarding metrics, the methodology page explains each of the data points and provides their respective sources.