(Reuters) – Russia announced Thursday that it will have a digital rouble that can make international payments by next year. It also plans to increase the acceptance of its Visa and Mastercard-style bank cards, which are administered by the central banking.

Moscow seeks alternative methods to pay key international payments, despite Western sanctions excluding Russia from major parts of the world’s financial system.

Elvira Nabullina, the country’s central banking governor, stated that real-world digital rouble transactions will be possible in the next year and that some international settlements could use the currency.

Nabiullina said that Russia’s lower House of Parliament has identified the digital rouble as one of its priority projects. “We created a prototype fairly quickly… Now we’re holding testing sessions with banks. Next year, we will have pilot transactions.”

Russia like other nations around the globe has developed digital currency over the past few years in order to modernise and accelerate payments, as well as prevent the threat from cryptocurrencies such bitcoin becoming more influential.

A number of central bank experts also believe that these new technologies will enable countries to communicate more effectively with one another, making them less dependent upon Western-dominated payment systems like SWIFT.

The Bahamas is believed to have launched its first national digital currency in 2020. China has been the leader among the major economies, having conducted an extensive trial with a digital Yuan this year at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Nabiullina stated that Russia wants to increase the acceptance of the MIR bank cards by other countries. Visa Inc (NYSE:) MasterCard Inc., which joined other Western companies and have suspended their operations in Russia.

MIR, China’s UnionPay and MIR are two of the few available options that Russians have for making payments overseas since Russian banks were removed from the global financial network in the wake of the “special military operation” against Ukraine.

On Thursday, the West continued to try and close any routes that could be used to circumvent sanctions.

Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it would deactivate accounts held by Russian citizens and businesses based in Russia. The equivalent value of over 10,000 euros will be forfeited ($10,900).

The people affected will be able withdraw their funds, however they are now prohibited from trading or making deposits. Binance claimed this move was in compliance with European Union sanctions.