Even though the euro is quantitatively behind the dollar, it makes up for this through quality, as could be inferred from the foreign currency supply and demand analysis available via the Bank of Russia’s website.

In January and February 2008, the better part of foreign currency transactions Russian citizens performed in banks and currency exchange points involved the U.S. dollar, with dollar sales going up in February 2008. In fact, Russian citizens now do tend to sell their dollars rather than to buy any, even through the difference in the number of selling and purchasing transactions is by no means drastic.

As for the euro transaction, Russians appear to be much more willing to buy euros rather than sell them (the ratio came to 985,000/593,000 transactions in February 2008, which signifies a nearly 25% imbalance).

Even though Russian people do make more dollar transactions quantitatively, the average worth of euro transactions leaves that of the dollar ones far behind. On average, the worth of a euro transaction is 33% greater than that of a dollar one.

‘The dollar takes the lead in terms of quantity, but the euro wins in terms of quality,’ SKB-Bank’s Dealing Director Anton Khavin says.

‘The dollar used to be seen as the world’s leading currency, but now euro has more or less replaced it. Moreover, Russia’s trading and tourist ties with the euro-using countries keep building up, more and more Russians choose to spend their vacations in Europe (where the service is much more costly), so they tend to buy more euros; after all, Russian people are used to getting everything they need, including cash, way beforehand,’ Khavin says.