Intaglio: Face: main motif (Peter the Great monument, ship); horizontal ornamental stripe; Bank of Russia emblem (graphicless area on the left); "500" (upper left); feature for the visually impaired (lower graphicless area on the left); all inscriptions; thin lines along the edges of the graphicless areas on the face; Back: main motif (Solovetsky monastery); "ПЯТЬСОТ РУБЛЕЙ"; "500" (bottom right); rosettes bearing "500" (graphicless areas on the left and right); horizontal lines of microprinting along the top of the banknote and below the main image Offset: Face: background image of the marine transport station; vertical ornamental stripe; "500" (graphicless area in the bottom); gray rosette with "500" (graphicless area on the right bottom); background patterns; Back: vertical ornamental stripe; background patterns; micropattern in the graphicless areas; year of issue "1997" (bottom right). Letterpress: Face: serial numbers with two letters (red on the left; dark green on the right; dark green with gradually enlarging numerals on the left)

Banknotes of the series issued in 1997 have the same design (Cities of Russia series) and a single array of security features including a watermark, a windowed security thread, and a latent image (Kipp effect). The modification of 2004 has the Moire Variable Color (MVC) on the face of banknotes. Banknotes of higher denominations (500–5,000 rоubles) have additional microperf and OVI. The 5,000-ruble banknote issued in 2006 has a new element in addition to these, which is authenticated with a polarizing filter. 500 Rubles of the modification of 2010 has MVC Chameleon, and 1,000 Rubles of the modification of 2010 has a thread VFI, SPARK® and MVC+. The 5,000-Rouble banknote issued in 2011 has SPARK®, MVC+, and security thread “Mobile”.