Russian Currency

Brief History of Russian Money

Russian Ruble is the official currency of Russian Federation. It is also used as a medium of exchange in many former soviet republics. Russian ruble is one of the world's oldest currencies. It appeared in 15th century during as called Silver Bum. At the time, Russian coins were made of silver. Soaring demand for silver across continental Europe resulted in growth of value of Russian silver coin to a point when they were no longer useful for purchases. People started splitting coins in halves. Russian word for "split" or "cut" is rubit'' and the half coins were called rubles. Even though Russian coins no longer come in halves, the name stuck on.

During the czar rule Russian rubles were one of the worlds highly valued currencies as they were backed by serious stockpiles of gold. During the Bolshevik revolution, most of that gold was shipped out of Russia, so the Soviet ruble's did not have much value. It did not matter anyway as the Soviet rules kept fixed rate of ruble. In 1993 Russian government has removed price fixing, but it continues to intervene into currency markets to keep the value of ruble at a lower rate than it actually is to stimulate Russian export producers.

From Soviet Ruble to Russian Ruble

Democratic revolution of 1991 led to abandonment of price fixing. "The shock therapy" resulted in immediate plunge of national currency as former soviet republics continued to print Russian rubles and exchange them for Russian goods creating inflation in Russia and devaluing its currency. Inflation was as high as 1000% per year! By mid 90s Russian authorities announced that they would no longer allow now formally independent countries to print Russian national currency. Russian ruble grew steadily until 1998 when the Asian financial crisis moved on to Russia. Value of ruble dropped four times overnight and has not changed ever since.

Current Russian Currency Rate

See current exchange rate of Russian currency now. If you need help arranging currency exchange for your trip to Russia we will be glad to assist you. Our representative will come to you hotel in Russia and exchange dollars for rubles at a current market rate.

Current Russian Ruble Exchange for US Dollars and Euro The first column represents approximate rate at which banks will exchange your dollars for rubles. Second column represents how many rubles you need to purchase one US dollar or one Euro. Need to exchage rubles? Contact us now