Visa and Mastercard suspended select Russian banks from their networks earlier this week in response to the US-imposed financial sanctions on the country. “This decision follows our recent action to restrict access to the Mastercard payment network to multiple financial institutions, as required by global regulators,” Mastercard says.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, the US and European Union blocked several Russian banks from the critical global financial system SWIFT. Sanctions have also prevented some Russian consumers from using Apple Pay or Google Pay, with PayPal suspending operations in the country early this morning. Other large corporations, including Samsung, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, have ceased doing business with Russia.
