The "BRICS banknote" was first spotted at the summit in Kazan last October, when Russian President Vladimir Putin left the meeting with what appeared to be a banknote in his hand. He later smiled and showed it to ministers, before handing it over to the head of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented at the time that it was "someone from our side—either from the CCI or someone else—who printed this quasi-currency".
The 10,000 copies were printed at the Kirzhach Printing House in the Vladimir region, one of Russia’s leading enterprises in secure printing, Katyrin explained.
He noted that the idea of creating the commemorative note came about when colleagues from the business community sought a form that would visually and conceptually reflect the principles of multipolarity, equality, and strategic partnership of BRICS.
"The paper for the banknote contains cotton and has a special protective strip. In total, the banknote features more than 20 security features, including a unique quadruple numbering system. Each number is printed with fluorescent ink of a specific frequency—this serves both as a security measure and a symbolic code", Katyrin explained.
In June, the head of the CCI mentioned that transactions within the BRICS grouping are conducted electronically in national currencies, and that there is no need to create a single currency.