Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has given instructions to two ministries to explore the application of blockchain technology in public sector.

In a recent speech, Medvedev discussed blockchain and said that he has asked the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Economic Development to look into the use of this technology in the public domain.

Medvedev said (as translated by CoinDesk):

"I gave instructions to relevant ministries - the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Economic Development - to consider the application of these technologies in the preparation of the program "Digital Economy'."

CoinDesk reported that according to an order released alongside the transcript of the speech, the aforementioned ministries should explore how blockchain technology could be leveraged "in the system of public administration and the economy of the Russian Federation". The order also stated that the ministries have until 11th May to prepare their initial response.

Russia has been gradually embracing blockchain technology. The Bank of Russia, along with the market participants, in October 2016 developed a technical prototype for financial messaging, based on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) called ‘Masterchain’. In December 2016, the central bank announced that its representatives, along with financial market participants, approved the decision to set up an Association for Financial Technologies Development (FinTech Association).