Meet ‘Mir’, Russia’s New National Payment Card
Russia’s new national payment card has been given a logo and a name – ‘Mir’, a word translating into English as both ‘Peace’, and ‘World’. The word is also associated in many Russians’ hearts with the Mir space station, our planet’s first modular space station, which was assembled in orbit between 1986 and 1996 and operated until 2001.
The new payment card, to be introduced later this year, received its name following an internet contest launched last month. Users submitted their entries beginning April 8, and the internet voted on the proposed designs a month later. Over 40,000 people voted to determine their favorite design. The winning name and logo design was submitted by a user named ‘lentachka!’ from Udmurtia, a region in the Russian Urals.
Second prize went to Tatyana from the Samara Region, whose logo was named ‘Sokol’, the Russian word for falcon. The winner and runner up will receive 150,000 and 50,000 rubles, equivalent to about $3,000 and $1,000, respectively. A formal celebration will be held on May 28.
Russia’s work on the creation of a new independent payment system began last year, when the European parliament urged EU states to consider excluding Russia from SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions.
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150523/1022482314.html
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