Currency of Russia

The ruble or rouble (Russian: рубль, rublʹ, plural рубли́, rubli; see note on English spelling) (code: RUB) is the currency of Russia and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of theRussian Empire and the Soviet Union before their dissolution. Belarus and Transnistria use currencies with the same name. The ruble is subdivided into 100 kopeks (sometimes written as kopecks or copecks; Russian: копе́йка, kopeyka; plural: копе́йки,kopeyki). The ISO 4217 code is RUB or 643; the former code, RUR or 810, refers to the Russian ruble before the 1998 redenomination (1 RUB = 1000 RUR).

The ruble was redenominated on 1 January 1998, with one new ruble equaling 1,000 old rubles. The redenomination was an administrative step that reduced the unwieldiness of the old ruble but occurred on the brink of the 1998 Russian financial crisis. The ruble lost 70% of its value against the U.S. dollar in the six months following this financial crisis. After the last Russian financial crisis ruble lost of 40% its value against the U.S. dollar and Euro.

In November 2004, the authorities of Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk Oblast) erected a five-meter monument to the ruble.

On 23 November 2010, at a meeting of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, it was announced that Russia and China have decided to use their own national currencies forbilateral trade, instead of the U.S. dollar. The move is aimed to further improve relations between Beijing and Moscow and to protect their domestic economies during the Great Recession. The trading of the Chinese yuan against the ruble has started in the Chinese interbank market, while the yuan’s trading against the ruble was set to start on the Russian foreign exchange market in December 2010.