Rouble redenomination no cause for fear, says Russian premier

Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin gave a reassurance on Wednesday that there were no grounds to fear the redenomination of the rouble set to take place in the next few days, saying it would involve nothing unexpected.

"The Russian government has been preparing for the redenomination of the rouble for two years, and no one should be afraid of it" , Chernomyrdin said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

"The new bills will be put into circulation on 1st January, and the first official payments in redenominated money will be made on 5th January" , he told the Cabinet.

"It is extremely important to prepare for the redenomination seriously to ensure that the population's interests are not affected.

Nothing unexpected will happen," Chernomyrdin said.

The Central Bank had given an assurance that most old bills would be replaced with new ones during 1988, but even after that it would remain possible to exchange old bills for new, he said.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.