In the Altai territory, police have been enlisted to impose fines of 1,000 rubles (about U.S.$33) for uttering profanities in public. (These fines can help swell city coffers: in Belgorod province, where the anti-swearing campaign is already five years old, residents handed over 5 million rubles—$165,000—in 2008.) And in the village of Achair, in Omsk province, a combination of techniques have been employed to clean the public air. "Some people just need to be held up to shame, some need explanations, and others need to be punished with rubles," explains village head Sofya Arefyeva.
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