Making change

I want to write quickly about something here that drives me nuts. Others have written about it, but I would like to rant. I recently ran out of money on my cell phone. You have to go to these little kiosks and put in small amounts of cash to add money to your account. Let's say however that when you last took out money, all you got out was 1000 roubles, or about $45, and you got it in one single bill. No place will take this 1000 roubles and exchange it for smaller denominations. If you go to a Producktы they look at you like you're crazy and if you try to give it to a bus money collector he takes your last 8 roubles and doesn't worry about the rest. I've tried to think about why this is the case here, and all I can think of is that it's some government or regionally sponsored initiative to control the liquidity of money, or more likely, they don't want to have too many large bills on hand in case the smaller establishments get robbed. Either way, it's annoying.