Visa and Mastercard suspend Russian operations, or did they??? [View all]

[yaesu]

US-based credit card giants Visa and Mastercard have both just announced they will sanction Russia by suspending their Russian business operations.

Visa Inc, based in California, issued a statement that said: “Visa will work with its clients and partners within Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days. 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.”

Mastercard: “We have decided to suspend our network services in Russia. This decision flows from our recent action to block multiple financial institutions from the Mastercard payment network, as required by regulators globally. With this action, cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by the Mastercard network. And, any Mastercard issued outside of the country will not work at Russian merchants or ATMs [cash point machines].”


So, sounds like Visa cards issued in Russia can still be used in Russia. A little smoke & mirrors maybe?

Also: Reuters news agency noted that the Tass Russian news agency had reported that Sberbank Rossii PAO, Russia’s largest lender, said sanctions announced by Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc would not affect users of the cards it issues in Russia when used inside Russia.