Apple and Google have closed a loophole which allowed some Russians to carry out payments via mobile services via registered Mir Cards. In this way it becomes impossible to circumvent the economic sanctions against Moscow.
Apple and Google block support for Russian payments via Mir cards
Last Friday, Apple informed the National Card Payment System Russian that he blocked Mir cards in Apple Pay. In this way “users cannot add Mir cards to the service. Apple will block all card operations it adds earlier in the next few days ”.
Last week, too Google had put in place similar measures. The Wall Street Journal explained that Mountain View had begun a pilot test to use cards that used the Mir system for payments.
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation had started using the Mir payment system after the United States and its allies had imposed sanctions for the annexation of Crimea in 2014. According to the Russian bank itself, the 25% of payments use this system in the country.
Apple and Google had blocked the transactions of some of the major Russian banks in response to theinvasion of Ukraine by the Kremlin. But with this new decision, they should ensure that no one in Russia can use their payment services.
Mastercard and VISA have also withdrawn their operations from the country. But it should be noted that the Russians can still make payments due to an agreement defined in 2015, which is what transactions are proprio gestite dal National Payment Card System, the institute that owns the Mir circuit. So the transactions still work, via the Russian circuit. We will keep you informed on the evolution of this situation.