Russian Orthodox Church blocked money. "It reminds of a dark period"
The Central Bank of Russia has decided to withdraw the recently introduced 1,000 ruble note. The decision was influenced by Orthodox priests, who considered its design to be scandalous. Clerical outrage was caused by the absence of a cross on the building - reports "Rzeczpospolita".
12:33 PM EDT, October 19, 2023
At the beginning of the week, the Russian Central Bank presented two new banknotes, with denominations of 1,000 and 5,000 rubles. However, after a few days, it was decided to withdraw the one of lower value, as it caused a storm among Russian clergy.
As the newspaper reports, one side of the banknote featured two temples located on the so-called Kazan Kremlin in the capital of Tatarstan. These were a mosque and a church. However, the top of the latter lacked a cross, and the mosque was finished off with a crescent.
Russia is withdrawing a new banknote from circulation
The drawing outraged Orthodox clergy. Father Pavel Ostrovsky, popular on social media, saw a conspiracy in the whole matter. On one of the platforms, he posted a statement in which he said that the absence of the cross can only be explained in two ways. The first is the presumed stupidity of the person responsible for the project, the second - a deliberate provocation of Muslims from Tatarstan, who are the majority religious group in the region. According to the clergyman, the cross should be added, because most Russians do not know history.
The Russian Central Bank bowed to pressure, halted the production of banknotes, and promised to introduce amendments to the project.
In practice, the side of the banknote depicts a palace church built in the XVII century in the Kazan Kremlin. It currently houses the Museum of the History of the Tatar People's Statehood and the Republic of Tatarstan. There is no Orthodox cross on the dome because it was removed during Soviet times. The head of the synodal department for church relations with society and the media of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vladimir Legoida, called for caution when choosing images for banknotes, as there is a risk of similar disputes.
The fight to strengthen the ruble is ongoing in Russia
The Russian currency has recently been in its worst situation practically since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. That's why Vladimir Putin issued a special decree, in which he imposed on the biggest exporters the duty to sell part of their profits earned in foreign currencies. The Bank of Russia supported this proposal, even though it had earlier claimed that such a move would not stabilize the situation. Even though initially the Kremlin's propaganda tried to downplay the falling of the domestic currency, the worrying signals for Russians reached the public opinion. The fact that the situation is not promising was confirmed, among others, by decisions of the central bank and Vladimir Putin.
- A somewhat lower dollar rate is needed for the budget, therefore a decree on foreign exchange income was signed - explained Vladimir Putin on Friday, quoted by the newspaper "Kommersant".
A special decree, the content of which has not been made public, concerns 43 groups of enterprises belonging to the fuel and energy complex, iron and non-ferrous metallurgy, chemical and forestry industry, and cereal farming.
