Russia's huge Far East region and the Crimean city of Sevastopol have won the right to be featured on new banknotes in an online vote

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Russia's Far East and Crimean capital Sevastopol have won the vote on the right to be featured on new banknotes, the Bank of Russia said on Friday. 

Earlier, the Russian central bank launched an online vote to determine which cities and regions will be featured on new 200 and 2,000-rouble banknotes. Russian citizens were eligible to vote. The short list also included Sochi, Siberia's Irkutsk and Tatarstan's Kazan.

Sevastopol overcame Kazan by a narrow margin of about 6,000 votes. The Kazan authorities have accused Sochi of dishonest competition. They claimed Sochi's Krasnaya Polyana resort was giving discounts to visitors who had casted votes for the city. At the same time, documents leaked online recently state that Tatar authorities were pressuring public employees and students to vote for Kazan.

Kazan and Sochi are principal venues of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and the preceding 2017 Confederations Cup.

Russian banknotes currently feature Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, Yaroslavl and Arkhangelsk.