{"id":2872,"date":"2025-02-17T13:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T14:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/?p=2872"},"modified":"2025-02-17T15:28:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:28:44","slug":"russian-mp-predicts-imminent-return-of-mastercard-and-visa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/17\/russian-mp-predicts-imminent-return-of-mastercard-and-visa\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian MP predicts imminent return of Mastercard and Visa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The payment card companies \u201clost a major market\u201d when they exited in 2022 due to the Ukraine conflict, Anatoly Aksakov has said<\/strong><\/p>\n

US payment giants Visa and Mastercard may soon resume operations in Russia, according to Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma\u2019s Financial Markets Committee. His statement comes amid ongoing high-level talks between Moscow and Washington.<\/p>\n

The two firms, which had operated in Russia for over 25 years, were among many that withdrew in 2022 under pressure from Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Aksakov expressed confidence that the payment firms \u201cwill come back soon because they have lost a major market and will want to regain access.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

However, he noted that re-entry would be \u201cmore difficult\u201d<\/em> since Russian consumers have already \u201cadapted to alternative payment systems.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Aksakov, Russia\u2019s National System of Payment Cards (NSPK) \u201chas proven to be both advanced and efficient.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Russia started developing the NSPK when the US and its allies targeted the country with Ukraine-related sanctions in 2014. Mir cards, Russia\u2019s alternative to Visa and Mastercard, entered circulation in December 2015.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Western sanctions led to the exclusion of many Russian banks from SWIFT, and Visa and Mastercard ceased operations. In response, the Russian government promoted Mir as a stable alternative. Currently, around ten countries accept Mir, while about 15 others have expressed an interest in adopting the Russian payment system.<\/p>\n

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Despite the growing reliance on domestic systems, Aksakov acknowledged that Visa and Mastercard would still be necessary for transactions with the EU and the US due to their global reach. Sanctions have pressured banks in some countries to halt transactions with Russia\u2019s NSPK, limiting the acceptance of Mir cards internationally.<\/p>\n

Aksakov\u2019s remarks come as delegations from Moscow and Washington are set to meet in Saudi Arabia this week. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Yury Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin\u2019s top foreign policy aide, will travel to Riyadh for talks with Trump administration officials. The discussions aim to lay the groundwork for an upcoming meeting between the two nation\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n

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\n READ MORE: <\/span>Caribbean country embraces Russia\u2019s alternative to MasterCard
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According to Peskov, the talks will focus on restoring bilateral relations. The development follows a 90-minute phone call between Putin and Trump last week, which revolved around settling the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The payment card companies \u201clost a major market\u201d when they exited in 2022 due to the Ukraine conflict, Anatoly Aksakov has said US payment giants Visa and Mastercard may soon resume operations in Russia, according to Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma\u2019s Financial Markets Committee. His statement comes amid ongoing high-level talks between…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2873,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872\/revisions\/2873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}