According to foreign media reports, Russia is about to start trials of cryptocurrency exchanges and use digital tokens in cross-border transactions to help ease payment difficulties for Russian businesses hit by international sanctions. The trials will start on September 1, two people familiar with the matter said. They said that when testing the payment and trading platform, Russia will use the national payment card system to exchange between rubles and cryptocurrencies. In July, the Russian parliament passed bills to legalize cryptocurrency mining and passed a framework that allows testing of digital tokens for cross-border transfers under the supervision of the central bank. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the bills into law on August 8. The cryptocurrency experiment comes as Russian companies face growing obstacles in making payments to overseas suppliers and obtaining payments for export goods.