Monument to the Credit Card

A small but characteristic bronze monument in the centre, set up in 2011 by Sberbank. It depicts a giant credit card emerging out of a wallet, and it is one of several minor whimsical monuments scattered around the centre (others include statues to the typewriter and to the keyboard).

Worth a five-minute detour while exploring downtown.

things to do sight historic centre
A story
Russia first issued credit cards in the early 1990s. By 2011, when this monument was erected, the country had finally caught up with the European mainstream. The two-tonne bronze card is more a celebration of the country's banking modernisation than of debt itself — the wallet at its base is firmly closed.