Last week, Vladimir Putin rejected international sanctions against Russia, suggesting the creation of a digital currency payment system for cross-border transactions independent of banks and similar to hawala.

“We are all well aware that in today’s illegitimate restrictions, one of the lines of attack is settlements,” Putin said during a Sberbank conference on Artificial Intelligence.

“Today, the international payment system is expensive, its system (of) correspondent accounts and its regulation are controlled by a narrow club of states and financial groups… In fact, they are the owners of life. They really control everything (through a) monopoly.”

The president gave the go-ahead to the hawala remittance system, which runs parallel to the banking system. “Based on digital currency technologies and distributed ledgers, it is possible to create a new, and much more convenient, international payment system. But at the same time completely safe for the participants and completely independent from banks and third party interference,” Putin is quoted as saying.

However, these comments have not been widely covered by the Russian press. Instead, it was widely reported that Putin gave Sberbank leader Herman Gref a warning during the conference. Graf is also a politician.

The digital currency benchmark was reported primarily by crypto press as well as government-owned Prime news agency, a sister organization to Russia Today and Sputnik, both of which are currently sanctioned by the European Union.

Since the start of the Ukraine war, there have been numerous reports that Russia is seeking cryptocurrency for cross-border payments. In response, the EU extended crypto sanctions. To date, the Central Bank of Russia has been interested in promoting regulated digital assets and is wary of cryptocurrencies. In September, the Russian prime minister set a December deadline for a set of actions covering the use of real-world tokenized assets for settlement, cryptocurrencies, and a digital ruble.

If Putin’s quotes are accurate, his frustration with the banking system seems to apply not just to the state-controlled Sberbank, which is dominant in Russia, but potentially to the Central Bank of Russia.