ул. Неглинная, 12, Москва, 107016 8 800 300-30-00 www.cbr.ru Новости First round of contest to select symbols for new banknotes over in ten days 19 июля 2016 года Новости The first round of the contest to select symbols for new 200- and 2,000-ruble banknotes will be over in ten days. At 11:59 p.m. on 28 July, on-line voting on a dedicated website (Твоя-Россия.рф) will stop and an extended list of symbols qualified for the second round will be posted. As of now, over 850,000 people from 1,000-plus Russian cities took part in the contest. They submitted over 4,500 symbols. As of morning of 19 July, 43 symbols from 31 cities qualified and appeared on the interactive map. By 19 July, only 13 cities have two and more symbols which collected over 5,000 votes. Citizens of Russia already selected two symbols for Vladivostok (Golden Bridge and bridge to Russky island), for Volgograd (Motherland Calls Monument and Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex), for Yekaterinburg (Sevastyanov’s House and Iset Hotel), for Murmansk (Monument to the Defenders of the Russian Arctic during the Great Patriotic War and Lenin icebreaker), for Nizhny Novgorod (Kremlin and Monument to Valery Chkalov), for Novosibirsk (Bugrinsky Bridge and Novosibirsk State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet), for Rostov-on-Don (Tachanka-Rostovchanka monument to the First Cavalry Army and Memorial to soldiers-liberators), for Samara (Boat stele and Museum and Exhibition Centre Space Samara), for Saratov (bridge over the Volga and Leonid Sobinov Conservatory), for Sevastopol (Monument to the Scuttled Ships and National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos), for Smolensk (Defensive Wall and Holy Assumption Cathedral), and Sochi (Fisht Olympic Stadium and Rosa Khutor Resort). Kazan is still the only city with three symbols already qualified (Kazan Federal University, Kremlin and Kul Sharif Mosque). All other entrants have one symbol each. The second round will take place on 5-30 August. It will be run by the Public Opinion Foundation as the all-Russian public opinion poll. Its results will be used to define a list of 10 cities or territories with 20 relevant symbols which will get the highest number of votes. They will qualify for the third round which will start in September. The all-Russian selection of symbols for new 200- and 2,000-ruble banknotes was initiated by the Bank of Russia. Never before the Russians could submit and select symbols for new banknotes by themselves. The contest is a three-round procedure with 7 October 2016 being its final day when the winners will be announced. Photo: Min Chiu / shutterstock.