What Is the Russian Ruble?

The RUB is the currency abbreviation for the Russian ruble (RUB), the currency of Russia. The Russian ruble is made up of 100 kopeks and does not have an official symbol. Although no symbol exists officially, py6 (three Cyrillic characters which are the equivalent of RUB in Russian) is currently used.

The ruble has been used since the 13th century, making it the second oldest national currency behind the British pound sterling.

Understanding the Russian Ruble

The ruble was the official currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. However, before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992, the currency symbol was the SUR, and up until the redenomination in 1998 after the Russian financial crisis, the code for the ruble was RUR. The 1998 redenomination—which was at a rate of 1000:1 to the old ruble—came after the ruble lost more than half its value during the crisis.

Russian ruble banknotes are printed at a state-owned factory in Moscow, which has been in operation since the end of World War I. Coins are minted in both Moscow and at the nearly 300-year old St. Petersburg Mint.

In late 2017, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a mandate that all Ukrainian banks and other financial institutions were forbidden to circulate Russian banknotes that depict images of Crimea, a region of Ukraine that is commonly regarded as a territory of Russia.

While Russia is one of the largest oil exporters, its currency is not heavily correlated to the price of oil due to the ongoing political instability in Russia. Periods of ruble weakness have tended to come at times of political unrest and localized issues.