Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the activist from the punk rock group Pussy Riot, noted today on Twitter that Russian authorities may have found one way to deal with the daily bad news of the ruble’s demise:

This morning the ruble exchange rate is at 65.89 to US $1 and 76.92 to the euro. Brent crude oil is trading at $47.51 per barrel.This is a slight improvement from yesterday.

Translation: They are changing to the new five-place signs instead of four?

Izvestiya reports that the removals are in compliance with a law passed last year that was supposedly motivated by esthetic concerns, for beautification of the city of Moscow. The Interpreter has a translation:

As Izvestiya determined, banks have begun to massively remove currency exchange boards from the fronts of their offices. Starting January 1, 2015, hundreds of such constructions must be removed. The problem is that under demands from the government of Moscow, banks must either reduce the size of their boards, or remove them — the new rules went into effect on May 1 of last year within the bounds of Sadovaya Ring Road, and this year, bank branches within the bounds of the Third Transport Ring Road also felt under the “purge.” In 2016, another 4,000 bank boards will be “repressed.”

The banks are removing the exchange boards from the fronts of their buildings in compliance with Moscow government Decree No. 902-PP, signed by Mayor Sobyanin on December 25, 2013. The law was drafted by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the City of Moscow (Moskomarkhitektura) with the involvement of the experts’ community, including specialists from the design studio of Artyom Lebedev.

So banks and presumably currency exchange booths as well must now follow a city ordinance to make signs on buildings built before 1952 a size of 50×50 centimeters (about 20×20 inches) (including the brackets). A board of 1×1 meter (about 3×3 feet)(including the brackets) is allowed on buildings built after 1952.

Why 1952? That’s a question to explore, given that architecture did not change dramatically that year — Stalin did not die until 1953. But perhaps it was because under Nikita Khrushchev, who was Moscow city boss in the early 1950s, there was something of a flourishing of the fine arts. What was more likely more relevant was a change in the type of construction panels for buildings to reduce costs, ordered by Khrushchev after an architecture conference in 1951. Moscow buildings did not come out of their Stalin phase immediately after that, but they began to change their look.

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick