Keyword: «union state»

The Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus are not just states on the political map of the world, but Union states, and every year counterfeiters forge banknotes in each of them. In Belarus, Russian rubles are forged, but not in Russia. In this regard, the study raises the question: why is this happening? Based on the statistics of the banks of the two states (and on the example of one of the most frequently forged banknotes), the article discusses ways to protect these popular paper banknotes in the counterfeiting environment, identifies typical and unique means of protecting each banknote in relation to each other. The authors of the study come to the conclusion that Belarusian banknotes contain more protective elements that can be checked without special devices, and therefore counterfeiters face a more difficult task since these protection elements can be checked without special equipment and «at a glance» determine which banknote is in front of a person – fake or genuine. It also offers ways to counter this crime, such as: creating new ways to protect against counterfeiting, modernizing existing methods and popularizing «cashless» payments.