As many as 1,200,395 people voted at the final stage of the competition to select symbols for the Russian Federation’s new banknotes.
The group of frontrunners is made up of six cities, where number one overtakes number six with a mere margin of eleven thousand votes.
The leaders in the vote tend to change rapidly.
In this way, Sevastopol comes in first (143,865 votes), followed by Kazan (141,319 votes). Volgograd, the former leader, drops to the third place (140,925 votes), while number four is held by the symbols of Sochi (137,534 votes). These are followed by the Far East symbols coming fifth (137,214 votes), and those of Irkutsk (132,836 votes) rounding out the top six.
The leaders are then followed by Sergiev Posad, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Petrozavodsk, competing neck and neck.
Statistical data show that Russians have been far more active at the final competition state, compared to the initial selection. Up to 40% of the website visitors take the vote, which is a high involvement rate for Internet users.
The Bank of Russia initiated the all-Russian selection of symbols for new 200 and 2,000 ruble banknotes.
For the first time ever, Russian citizens will be able to come up with their own ideas, making independent choices as to what to depict on the new banknotes. The selection process, which includes three stages, is to be complete before October 7th 2016, the day when the winners will be announced.
The Russian ruble having been decimated by sanctions and lower oil prices in the past couple of years has stabilized as of late and is now trading in the low 60s versus the dollar. The ruble has recovered after being pummeled to all-time lows earlier this year touching lows in the 80s versus the dollar.
One year USD/RUB chart.