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Russia issues Crimea banknote in move likely to irk Ukraine
A screen, showing Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual end-of-year news conference, is on display on a street of the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea, December 17, 2015. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Pavel Rebrov
23/12/2015
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday issued a new banknote dedicated to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it annexed last year, in a move likely to anger Kiev which says it wants the territory back.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in March last year in a military operation denounced by the West which imposed retaliatory sanctions on Moscow that remain in place.
The new banknote, worth 100 rubles ($1.41), depicts a memorial to sunken ships in the port of Sevastopol, where Russia keeps its Black Sea Fleet, and the Swallow's Nest, a cliff top castle near Yalta.
The yellow-colored note also features a watermark of Empress Catherine the Great, who extended the borders of the Russian Empire in the eighteenth century to absorb Crimea.
Russia's central bank said in a statement it would issue 20 million of the new notes. It has previously minted a 10 rouble coin to celebrate Russia's control of Crimea.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Dmitry Solovyov)
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