Reuters and other press agencies have reported that in the wake of the Visa and Mastercard announcement of the cutoff of services to Russia on March 9 due to increased sanctions, several Russian banks will begin issuing new cards using the Chinese card operator system, UnionPay. This will enable the holders of new cards to use them for paying and withdrawing cash abroad.
Visa and Mastercard cards issued outside of Russia won’t work within Russia, and those issued within Russia won’t function abroad, but will continue to function internally, via the internal National Payment Card System (NSPK), created in 2014.
Russia also has its own national payment system, Mir, which was launched by the Bank of Russia central bank in 2015, a year after sanctions against the country were introduced.
