American financial services giants Mastercard and Visa have announced the suspension of their services in Russia in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said that their cards issued by Russian banks will no longer work outside the country. “Effective immediately, 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,” Visa said in a statement on Saturday. “This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values,” Al Kelly, Chairman and CEO of Visa Inc was quoted as saying in the release.
Mastercard has also ceased operations in Russia over the latter’s military campaign in Ukraine. “This decision flows from our recent action to block multiple financial institutions from the Mastercard payment network, as required by regulators globally,” Mastercard said in its statement. The company added that cards issued outside of Russia will not work at Russian merchants or ATMs.
According to the White House, US President Joe Biden, during a conversation with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, welcomed the decisions of Visa and Mastercard to suspend services in Russia.
Earlier this week, aerospace company Boeing had announced the suspension of maintenance and technical support services for Russian carriers in view of the recent developments in the growing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Several social media giants, including Google and Meta, have also barred Russian state-sponsored media from monetizing content on their platforms in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
