Russia Unveils New Plans for Banknotes and Cash Circulation

The Board of the Central Bank of Russia has issued its ‘Guidelines for Cash Circulation Development in 2021-2026’. Its over-arching goals are to ensure the stability of cash circulation, optimise costs based on the development of technical infrastructure, as well as the formation of partnerships with banks for holding stocks of banknotes.

Included within the goals is the phased modernisation of the country’s banknotes in order to improve their quality. From 2021-2025, six new banknotes will be introduced with improved security and designs.

The first of these – the 100 rubles – will be introduced in 2022, followed by the 1,000 and 5,000 rubles in 2023, the 500 rubles in 2024 and 10 and 50 rubles in 2025. The 200 rand 2,000 rubles, both introduced in 2017, will not be included in the new series.

The theme of all the banknotes will be key cities on the front, supplemented with imagery specific to the region in which that city is located on the reverse.

St Petersburg and Moscow will feature on the 50 and 100 rubles, as they do on the current notes. Images of Novosibirsk, Pyatigorsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg will appear on the 10, 500, 1000 and 5000 rubles respectively.

It is also understood that it is the Bank's intention to increase durability by varnishing all of the notes. Currently only the 100 and 200 ruble notes are varnished.

‘The design and basic security complex of 1997-style banknotes were developed nearly 30 years ago. Over 2001–2010, the Bank of Russia issued 12 modifications of these banknotes. However, the security complex of banknotes has not been enhanced over the last ten years. Therefore, it is time now to continue its upgrade, simultaneously renewing the design of banknotes,’ said the Bank’s Deputy Governor, Mikhial Alekseev in an online press conference.

‘As the portion of new upgraded banknotes to be issued in 2022–2025 increases in the cash flow, they will be used for at least the next ten years along with all the existing banknotes and their modifications’, he added.