People buying foreign currency 'in bulk' (photo)

The new record - 17 thousand for one dollar, the euro is worth 19 thousands.

Have people in Minsk rushed to the exchange offices? We decided to check. In the local GUM store there are four people in line. A middle-aged woman is buying $150 "for vacation."

Behind her is a man waiting to buy dollars "to pay for an apartment." Behind him the girls are also changing money on vacation.

"There are no long lines, but people are buying the dollars in large amounts,"  said a bank cashier at the Minsk metro station Niamiha.

There are only two people in line: a man is selling $100 to go shopping, followed by a girl who in turn is buying dollars.

But in Niamiha there is a line to the ATM, with ten people waiting for their turn to buy Belarusian rubles. Suddenly, the first person in line disappointed all the rest: no more money in the ATM.

Only 4 people are in line for the exchange office at the "Na Niamize" department store. The first person is buying dollars, then a woman buys some currency. About $400 for the two of them.

At another exchanger of the same store, there are no people at all. "We have USD, you can buy them," the cashier answers me when asked about $300.

There are 8 people in line for the exchanger in Belarusbank at the Stalitsa shopping mall. The first woman in line buys $200. The man in front of me on the contrary wants to sell a hundred and go shopping. In the middle, a woman just wants to pay for communal services.

The Belarusbank in Karl Marx street is full of people, there are six people in line for one cashier desk and eight in the other. But not everyone is buying the currency: someone pays for communal services, two foreigners are selling dollars. If somebody is buying, the sums are small of 200-300 dollars.

"Lines in exchange offices again -- a woman in front of me bought foreign currency for 160 million, followed by a man who bought $900," said Alena on a social network site.

In three days the dollar reached the mark of 17 thousand rubles. It rose by 232 rubles just today, the euro gained 500 rubles.