Russia's Stolichny Bank and IBM announced a deal Thursday for the delivery and installation of 2,000 automatic teller machines that would create the country's first major network of computerized cash dispensers.


"The agreement means one of the largest orders IBM has ever had for ATMs," said Lennart Krook, general manager of IBM East Europe/Asia.


"It is a fascinating challenge for all of us."


Alexander Smolensky, Stolichny's president, said that the deal was worth "tens of millions of dollars."


Krook said the first stage of the project, covering 100 ATMs, would be financed by a credit from IBM. But he did not give details of how the rest of the deal would be funded.


Smolensky said that under the agreement, Stolichny, one of Russia's biggest retail banks, would also manufacture its own ATMs on license from IBM starting in 1996.


The ATMs will initially accept only STB cards, issued by Stolichny and other major retail banks, Smolensky said. But starting Jan.1, the new ATMs will also accept Visa and Eurocard/Mastercard, he added.


Stolichny's ATMs will dispense only rubles and the bank will charge a 1 percent commission on each transaction, Smolensky said.


ATMs have become an increasingly popular target for crime in the West, a problem that Smolensky said would be no less serious in Russia.


In England and France, for example, criminals have even employed cranes to rip the machines out of buildings.


Smolensky said that Stolichny would seek to reduce the crime threat by installing its machines in public locations, preferably near militia posts. They will also be equipped with video surveillance to protect against robbery and fraud, he said.


In Russia, the machines will also face the challenge of freezing weather and will be built to withstand temperatures of as low as minus 37 degrees Celsius, he said.


According to Smolensky, Stolichny will begin assembling and testing its own ATMs in 1996 using IBM technology at a former defense factory, which he declined to name.


The Russian-made ATMs should be at least 30 percent cheaper than imported versions with domestically produced components gradually replacing imported ones, Smolensky said.


The project would become IBM's second production facility in Russia.


The U.S. computer giant already assembles computers at the Kvant factory in Zelenograd, northern Moscow.


Stolichny already has Russia's biggest network of ATMs, with around 100 machines in operation, mainly in Moscow.


Smolensky said that his bank chose to install its first cash dispensers in government buildings -- like the White House, the State Duma and the ministries -- to win political support for the idea of ATMs.


"First we want to convince our power structures that an ATM is a good thing, so that it would later be easier for us to install new machines," Smolensky said.