50 Rubles (Sergey Radonezhskiy) – Russian Federation

The currency situation in the Russian Federation in 2014 was defined by a severe and rapid depreciation of the ruble, culminating in a full-blown currency crisis by year's end. The primary trigger was a sharp decline in global oil prices, which began in mid-2014, severely impacting Russia's export-dependent economy, as oil and gas revenues constituted nearly half of the federal budget. This external shock was dramatically compounded by the imposition of Western economic sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea and its involvement in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. These sanctions restricted major Russian state banks and corporations' access to Western capital markets, crippling their ability to refinance foreign debt and leading to massive capital flight, estimated at over $150 billion for the year.

In response, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) initially spent over $80 billion of its foreign exchange reserves in a futile attempt to defend the ruble's value, before allowing it to float freely in November. This move, coupled with a dramatic interest rate hike from 10.5% to 17% in a single December night, failed to immediately stabilize the currency. The ruble's value against the US dollar effectively halved between June and December, with a particularly steep collapse in mid-December, sparking fears of a banking crisis and panic buying of imported goods.

The crisis had profound domestic consequences, causing a spike in inflation, a deep recession in 2015, and a significant erosion of household purchasing power. However, it also prompted a policy shift towards greater financial sovereignty. The floating exchange rate acted as a shock absorber for the budget, and the subsequent years saw a concerted effort to de-dollarize the economy, build up sovereign reserves, and reduce external debt, fundamentally reshaping Russia's financial landscape in the long term.