Economist Belyaev named the source of counterfeit UAE dirhams in Russia

No one can compete with counterfeit dollars

The list of counterfeit foreign cash detected in Russia has been supplemented with the “friendly” UAE dirham. According to the Central Bank, the counterfeit banknote was discovered in the third quarter in one copy. According to the relevant statistics of the regulator, which has been maintained since 2010, such counterfeits have never been encountered in the country before. It’s clear why: paper dirhams from the Emirates began to reach us relatively recently, and in tiny quantities.

In total, 510 counterfeit foreign banknotes were identified in Russia in the third quarter. Which is 31% more than in the third quarter of 2022 and almost 46% more than in the second quarter of the current year. Among the identified counterfeits, the absolute majority were US dollars – 428 bills, followed by paper euros – 80. The UAE dirham in this company shared the “honorable” third and fourth places with the Chinese yuan: one counterfeit each.

Let us recall that the demand for the purchase and sale of the national currency of friendly countries (which includes the UAE) in cash from individuals increased sharply last year.

For obvious reasons, the yuan has become the undisputed leader; most Russian banks offer exchange transactions with it. Some banks have launched exchanges for citizens, in particular, Turkish lira and dirham. Both currencies are classified as “soft”, that is, limitedly convertible or non-convertible, whose exchange rate is subject to significant fluctuations, in contrast to “hard” ones – the dollar, euro, pound sterling and a number of others.

For one UAE dirham they give 25.5 rubles, the difference between buying and selling a paper dirham is about 1.5 rubles. These banknotes are, in fact, only relevant for Russians traveling to the Emirates for the purpose of tourism.

“Since there were no grounds for widespread use of cash currencies of “friendly” countries until 2022, this is a relatively new phenomenon for Russia,” says financial analyst, Candidate of Economic Sciences Mikhail Belyaev. – And it is clear that in the total mass of ordinary banknotes there may also be counterfeit ones. People bring them back from trips out of ignorance, not out of malice. In Russia, no one would think of counterfeiting the same dirham.”

It is also clear why dollars dominate the list of detected counterfeits. Firstly, the American currency still has no competitors in the Russian Federation – neither in terms of versatility and ease of use, nor in terms of the volume of cash liquidity in the hands of citizens. Many Russians visit eastern countries as tourists, such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Thailand, where it is much more convenient to travel with dollars than with euros. And in Latin America there is nothing to do with European banknotes.

Secondly, dollar bills (especially old ones) are easier to counterfeit than euro bills, Belyaev argues.