The 350 kg bathtub was then carried to an Apple store in a mall in central Moscow. In the video, security guards can be seen trying to stop Mr Kovalenko and his friends from entering.
"Is there anything wrong?" Mr Kovalenko is heard asking the guard.
After two scuffles, the group managed to carry the coin-filled bathtub into the store.
In a surprising twist, however, the store actually agreed to carry out the transaction using this bizarre mode of payment. According to reports, it took store employees two hours to count all the coins, so Mr Kovalenko could purchase a 256 GB model of the iPhone XS.
A picture shared on Facebook shows an Apple employee at the task of counting all the coins:
Mr Kovalenko told ABC News that the stunt was pulled off in order to draw attention to people's attitude towards small change in Russia. In the country, stores will often refuse to serve customers if they don't carry exact change."We decided to do a very global experiment and show who refuses to accept change," Mr Kovalenko said. "The more people who watch the video, the more people will understand that change, whether it's a kopek, whether's it 10 kopeks, it is also currency."
