OREANDA-NEWS. The contest to select the symbols for new Bank of Russia 200- and 2,000-ruble banknotes on a dedicated website (Твоя-Россия.рф) entered a new phase with a fresh impetus given to the city second symbol submission. As many as four cities – Sochi (Rosa Khutor Resort and Fisht Stadium), Nizhny Novgorod (the Kremlin and monument to Valery Chkalov), Sevastopol (Monument to the Scuttled Ships and Chersonesos) and Yekaterinburg (Sevostyanov’s House and the Iset Hotel) managed to qualify each with a pair of symbols. Interesting enough that two Yekaterinburg symbols managed to appear on the interactive map almost simultaneously, in one and the same day. The city of Kazan takes the lead currently with three symbols (the Kremlin, Kul Sharif Mosque and Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University) already qualified.

Users have been rather active in submitting their own images for future banknotes with unexpected, funny and curious symbols of their cities. For example, a citizen of Vladivostok submitted a steamed pie pian-se symbol which is regarded a gastronomic specialty of Vladivostok, and a drawing of a pussy cat called Matroska who ate seafood worth 60,000 rubles in the local airport.

Users from Voronezh suggested black soil, monuments to a movie character Scottish setter called White Bim Black Year, the kitten from Lizyukov Street (a Soviet cartoon character) and even …a mammoth which used to inhabit those places in the Stone Age.

The citizens of Perm, in their turn, drew on the banknote the most efficient and robust in the world northern bee as a symbol of the Western Urals, while the citizens of Ryazan believe the new banknotes should definitely bear a portrait of the famous local, poet Sergei Yesenin.

The users of social networks went even further in their desires and submitted the Warriors from Vasnetsov’s famous picture, as well as popular Internet memes, for example, dinosaur Philosoraptor in doubt with Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic Park gates on the reverse side of a banknote.

From 28 June to 15 July, 745,541 people took vote to select symbols for new Bank of Russia banknotes on (Твоя-Россия.рф) website. Overall, 4,320 symbols have been submitted. 657,984 people used social networks to vote, and 87,557 users sent SMS messages. 34 symbols from 26 cities already passed the minimal threshold of 5,000 votes and thus qualified.

According to the contest rules, a symbol shall collect 5,000 votes to qualify. This is how the interactive map looks like as of July 15 (in order of appearance):

  1. Motherland Calls Monument (Volgograd);
  2. Golden Bridge (Vladivostok);
  3. Monument to the Scuttled Ships (Sevastopol);
  4. Citadel of Naryn-Kala (Derbent);
  5. Monument to Salavat Yulaev (Ufa);
  6. Lake of Baikal (with reference to Irkutsk);
  7. Heart of Chechnya Mosque (Grozny);
  8. Vostochny launching site (with reference to the city of Tsiolkovsky);
  9. Kremlin (Kazan);
  10. Monument to the Defenders of the Russian Arctic during the Great Patriotic War (Murmansk);
  11. Bugrinsky Bridge (Novosibirsk);
  12. Defensive Wall (Smolensk);
  13. Novosibirsk State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet (Novosibirsk);
  14. Monument to the Conquerors of Samotlor (Nizhnevartovsk);
  15. Golden Gates (Vladimir);
  16. Kul Sharif Mosque (Kazan);
  17. Holy Assumption Cathedral (Smolensk);
  18. Kremlin (Nizhny Novgorod);
  19. Rosa Khutor Resort (Sochi);
  20. Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University (Kazan);
  21. Bridge across the Volga (Saratov);
  22. Monument to Valery Chkalov (Nizhny Novgorod);
  23. Kremlin (Kolomna);
  24. Rear-Front Monument (Magnitogorsk);
  25. Sevostyanov’s House (Yekaterinburg);
  26. Iset Hotel (Yekaterinburg);
  27. Memorial to soldiers-liberators (Rostov-on-Don);
  28. Fisht Olympic Stadium (Sochi);
  29. Tomsk State University (Tomsk);
  30. Boat stele (Samara);
  31. National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos (Sevastopol);
  32. Mother Patroness Monument (Cheboksary);
  33. Walking Bear sculpture (Perm);
  34. Monument to the Kitten from Lizyukov Street (Voronezh).

The all-Russian selection of symbols for new 200 and 2000 ruble banknotes was initiated by the Bank of Russia. Never before the Russians could offer and select symbols for new banknotes by themselves. The contest will be a three-step procedure with 7 October 2016 being its final day when the winners will be announced.