Akademik

   The ruble (rubl’), sometimes spelled “rouble,” is the main unit of currency in the Russian Federation. One ruble is divided into 100 kopecks (kopeika). The word “ruble” derives from the Russian verb rubit’, which means “to chop off,” and refers to the ancient practice of slicing an amount of silver off an ingot. The ruble coins include 1, 2, 5, and 10 rubles, and are usually minted with special insignia. The ruble banknotes include 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000, and 5,000 rubles, featuring images of national heroes and important national sites such as the Bolshoy Theater (which appears on the 100 ruble banknote). In the Soviet Union, the foreign exchange value of the ruble was controlled by the state; the ruble was liberalized in the early 1990s, thus exposing the currency to devaluation in 1998 when a global economic downturn triggered the ruble crisis. With economic stabilization under Vladimir Putin, the ruble began to feature in foreign currency exchange offices around the world. Plans are under way to introduce a globally recognized symbol for the ruble to promote confidence in the currency and place it on the same plane with the dollar ($), yen (¥), pound (£), and euro (€). In 2009, one U.S. dollar was worth about 30 Russian rubles.