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Visa, Mastercard ‘immediately’ suspend operations in Russia over unprovoked Ukraine invasion

March 6, 2022 | | Print Article

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Visa and Mastercard have suspended all operations in Russia, a move that could potentially lead to Russian citizens being deprived of access to 90 percent of all debt/credit cards in existence on Earth once their current cards expire.

The suspensions were announced Saturday afternoon after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “pleaded for Visa and Mastercard to end services in Russia during a call with U.S. lawmakers,” according to Newsweek.

“Effective immediately, Visa will work with its clients and partners within Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days,” Visa said in a statement.

“Once complete, all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country and any Visa cards issued by financial institutions outside of Russia will no longer work within the Russian Federation.”

Visa chairman and CEO Al Kelly added in a quote that he feels “compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed.”

“We regret the impact this will have on our valued colleagues, and on the clients, partners, merchants and cardholders we serve in Russia. This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values,” he said.

In a similarly themed statement of its own, Mastercard announced that it too has “decided to suspend our network services in Russia.”

The Russian Central Bank has dismissed this move as a nothing burger, reportedly arguing that “all Visa and Mastercard bank cards issued by Russian banks will continue to operate normally on Russian territory until their expiration date.”

In a statement issued through Telegram, Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, reassured customers that their cards can still “be used for operations in the Russian territory — to withdraw cash, make transfers using the card number, and for payment at offline as well as at online Russian stores,” as reported by The Moscow Times.

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“The cards would continue to work on Russian territory, it said, because all payments in Russia are made through a national system and do not depend on foreign systems. However, the Central Bank warned that Russians traveling abroad should carry alternate means of payment,” according to the Times.

All this is true. However, if the ongoing conflict persists for years on end, as some analysts have predicted will happen, Russian citizens could — once all their cards expire — eventually find themselves locked out of 90 percent of the market.

According to a Reuters report published in 2020, “Visa holds a 60% share of the credit and debit card market, followed by Mastercard with 30%.” The remainder of the market is controlled by American Express (8.5 percent) and Discover.

Visa and Mastercard’s suspension of operations in Russia comes amid a flurry of other suspensions by BP, Exxon, Shell, Boeing, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Disney, Ikea, Nike, Apple, Google and many more.

PayPal, a non-traditional online payment system that serves as an alternative to credit card payments, also suspended its operations Saturday.

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The announcement was made not to the world at large but rather to Ukrianian Depty Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, bizarrely enough.

“PayPal supports the Ukrainian people and stands with the international community in condemning Russia’s violent military aggression in Ukraine. … Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia,” the statement reads.

Fedorov’s Twitter feed contains a plethora of additional letters. However, most of them appear to be letters written by him and designed to shame companies and people, including U.S. governors, into doing “more” for the Ukrainian people.

Observe:

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Apparently, this strategy of shaming others is working …

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Vivek Saxena
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