Banknote with subtext

Khabarovsk neighbors may not like the new 5,000 ruble bill

A new banknote will appear in the wallets of Russians. The Bank of Russia announced yesterday the release into circulation of a 1997 banknote with a face value of 5,000 rubles. From July 31, it becomes a full-fledged means of payment and is subject to mandatory acceptance throughout Russia. According to the First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, Georgy Luntovsky, the release of the new banknote “is a reflection of the economic situation in Russia, which is characterized today by an increase in the monetary income of the population.” “Now the average monthly income of the population has exceeded 10 thousand rubles, and in some regions it is much higher,” Mr. Luntovsky told reporters yesterday, predicting that the orange banknote with views of Khabarovsk will quickly displace what was the largest bill until yesterday 1000 rubles. The director of the department of issuing and cash operations of the Bank of Russia, Alexander Yurov, also predicts that in just a few years the share of this banknote will be 10-15% of all banknotes in circulation.

The Bank of Russia announced plans to launch a new five-thousandth banknote into payment circulation in the second half of 2006 almost a year ago. Representatives of the bank assured that by increasing the denomination of banknotes, the authorities hope to at least reduce the costs of maintaining the required number of banknotes in circulation. The second goal is to increase the level of protection against counterfeiting. To achieve this, the new banknote uses watermarks, micro-perforations, color-variable ink and moiré, a latent image, as well as a diving security thread on the reverse side. “We can say that almost all the security features of this banknote have become multi-level, which, we believe, should create a serious barrier for counterfeiters,” Mr. Luntovsky said yesterday.

However, if we look at this counterfeit-proof banknote from a fundamentally different angle, then many claims can be made against it, which economists may not even be aware of. Continuing the so-called city series, the 5,000 ruble banknote will certainly appeal to residents of Khabarovsk, whose sights the artists tried to depict on the money. But such a choice may cause discontent among Khabarovsk neighbors. Moreover, both on this and on this side of the Russian state border.

The front side of the new banknote depicts the monument to Muravyov-Amursky by Opekushin, installed in Khabarovsk at the end of the 19th century and restored in the past century. The main design of the reverse side of the banknote is an image of a bridge over the Amur River in Khabarovsk. If you wish, in addition to this bridge connecting the Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region, you can also see Chinese territory. On the left of the banknote, after the security thread, lie the islands of Bolshoy Ussuriysky and Tarabarov, part of which was transferred to the PRC in 2005. These islands have long been considered disputed. The Chinese designated them on their maps as the territory of the People's Republic of China, and the Russians, in turn, considered them theirs. In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev signed a border treaty with China, and the border was drawn along the Amur channel. The two islands ended up on the Chinese side of the shipping route. Soon, on Bolshoy Ussuriysky, in just a month, the chapel of the martyr-warrior Victor was built with the inscription “And there is only one warrior in the field.” Patriarch Alexy II personally flew in to cover it in 2000. The huge chapel stands on the highest place and is clearly visible on the Chinese side. It is along the chapel that the state border is now drawn. The design of the banknote began to be developed back in 1999. Since then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge, and therefore few people paid attention to the fact that the state border between the Russian Federation and the PRC has undergone changes.

But not only the Chinese can find the design of the 5,000-ruble note irritating. Today, Khabarovsk, with a population of 700,000, considered the territorial center of the Russian Far East, where the residence of the presidential envoy is located, is secretly competing with Vladivostok, which also claims to be the Far Eastern capital. In the seaside city, at one time they even collected signatures for the transfer of the embassy to Vladivostok. But the then presidential representative Konstantin Pulikovsky nipped this initiative in the bud. The new bill only adds fuel to the fire in this behind-the-scenes dispute. After all, Vladivostok also used to have “its own” money - until 1997, the sights of the capital of Primorye were featured on the 1000 ruble banknote. But after the redenomination the old banknote was abolished.

Maxim GLADKY