When Russians want to borrow cash from someone in another city, they do not ask to wire it, but to "hand it over" with a friend or relative -- a clear sign of dissatisfaction with Russian money transfer services, which are expensive and not always reliable.


But another option is coming up soon: Western Union, a U.S.-based company that has been doing dollar transfers among CIS countries and abroad for over two years, is planning to launch a domestic ruble transfer service in Russia by the end of the year.


After a month-long test program involving several terminals in central and eastern Russia, which begins in mid-December, Western Union's entire Russian network of over 50 locations will start sending and receiving ruble transfers, said John Skinner, general director of Western Union in Russia.


The fee will be based on Western Union's dollar rates, which range from 18 percent for a $100 transfer to around 4.5 percent for transfers over $1,000.


The state postal service presently offers 24-hour money transfers, limiting the amount to 1 million rubles ($305) and charging a flat 10 percent fee. Sending the same amount of money through Western Union will cost about 13 percent, but will take only 10 minutes once the ruble transfer service is in operation, according to Skinner.


Banks can also transfer money, but the operation can be time-consuming and often requires that both the sender and recipient open accounts.


Skinner said that Western Union plans to sharply expand its Russian network, which now covers 16 cities, to cash in on the opportunity to revive Russia's potentially huge money transfer market.


Cash transfers, widely used in the Soviet era, have become less popular in recent years as inflation has risen. "You had a zero inflation and a good enforcement at the time," said Skinner. "Nowadays, people are not too interested in losing money because of inflation. But our research tells us that lots of people here would like to transfer rubles, when they're sure it's fast and reliable."


Skinner said finding reliable partners and working out the problem of integrating Western technology into Russia's outdated communications and fragmented banking system were the hardest tasks. Western Union presently works with 30 separate Russian banks.


"It's difficult to shift for a local currency, but now technical problems are solved," Skinner said.


Western Union has considered a partnership with Sberbank to take advantage of the former state savings bank's huge branch network, but, so far, the two companies' cooperation is limited to one terminal at a Sberbank in Volgograd. The reason, a Western Union official said, is a lack of technology and professionalism at the bank.


"Their operators are often slow, and they're lacking things like modems," said Sergei Kochergin, advertising manager at Western Union.


Olga Rumyantseva, director of the transfer and check department at Gloria-Bank, which runs five Western Union terminals in Moscow, said the bank plans to turn a good profit on commissions from the ruble service.


"The ruble program will be very successful, because the market is huge and there is not a lot of competition," she said. "The Russian postal service cannot transfer more than 1 million, and what is 1 million today?"


Gloria has been working with Western Union for over a year on its inter-CIS operation, which is expected to nearly double in 1994 to 32,000 transfers from 17,000 last year. Western Union predicts an even steeper increase next year, since the postal service offers almost no competition.


An official at Moscow's Post Office No. 2 said that no more than 15,000 rubles -- less than five dollars -- can be transferred to Ukraine, and that the process would probably take "a couple of weeks." The post office charges 10 percent of the total transfer, she said.


When asked how a larger sum could be sent, the official suggested making several transfers. "You can make one transfer in the morning, one in the afternoon and another one tomorrow morning," she said.