from Hacker News

MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

by bradvl on 3/5/22, 10:26 PM with 359 comments

• by 323 on 3/5/22, 10:40 PM

  Visa too:

  > Visa Suspends All Russia Operations

  https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.rele...

  MasterCard/Visa cards issued in Russia will not work abroad, cards issued abroad will not work in Russia.

  > MasterCard/Visa account for three-quarters of payments in Russia

  https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/150023911662537932...

• by samwillis on 3/5/22, 10:45 PM

  Mirror: https://archive.ph/d5RmA (was down)

  Key passage:

  “ 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.”

  I don’t believe it’s clear that cards issued in Russia are not still being accepted within Russia. Which is what I believe Visa is still doing:

  “ 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.”

  https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.rele...

  If MasterCard is matching Visa it’s effectively cross border transactions that have stopped - not withdraw access to Russian issued cards within Russia.

  If they have withdrawn access to Russian cards within Russia it’s going to put enormous pressure on Russian citizens. Visa and Mastercard apparently have 73% of the credit card market in Russia. This could be the type of pressure need for citizens to push back at the Russian administration (not that they aren’t already).

• by ghiculescu on 3/5/22, 10:58 PM

  I’m not pro crypto or pro Russia, but the fact that it’s so easy to lose ones freedom to transact[0] (regardless of the specific merits here) is troubling.

  [0] https://mobile.twitter.com/punk6529/status/14944446246304030...

• by artdigital on 3/5/22, 11:43 PM

  I have a Russian friend living abroad for a longer period of time and paying his day to day expenses with savings through credit cards. They all stopped working and he has no way to pay for anything anymore.

  I get why it’s done but it’s still sad to see people that have nothing to do with this situation get hit like this

• by lostwords on 3/5/22, 11:45 PM

  It's the first action against Russia that made me angry. It's so stupid and wrong at the same time.

  So, in Russia all the cards will work, nothing is changed here (despite the statements of Visa and Mastercard). Cards issued by Russian banks would stop work abroad. The same is true for any foreign cards in Russia. So, foreigners in Russia are fucked. People who left Russia in a hurry because they didn't want to be part of this craziness or because it's dangerous for them to stay (i.e. they are known protesters against the regime) are fucked.

  Nice move. Simply genius.

• by savant_penguin on 3/5/22, 10:49 PM

  "We’re undergoing site maintenance. But don’t worry — as there’s no impact to your ability to make Mastercard purchases or payments"

  Unless you're Russian I guess.

  As much as I enjoy the act this could backfire as a show of the tremendous power these companies have: shutting down credit card payments will likely impact large portions of online payments.

  But at the same time every extra inefficiency in the Russian economy could translate into less bullets going to kill Ukrainians

• by textech on 3/5/22, 11:14 PM

  I guess this will just accelerate adoption of China's UnionPay or their homegrown MIR.

• by systemvoltage on 3/5/22, 10:51 PM

  Do companies of this size already have the infrastructure built, a kill switch of the sorts, to turn off an entire country’s payment system? I’m thinking not just technology wise, but also things like existing subscriptions and contractual legal stuff between countries, customers, etc. It seems like a monumental undertaking to integrate payment systems for a new country, turning it off seems even more impressive.

• by grandpoobah on 3/5/22, 10:57 PM

  Call me insane, but this feels insane. It would be one thing if Visa/Mastercard were being forced to do this, but for them to take it upon themselves to "pick a side" during a global conflict feels really wrong.

• by Markoff on 3/6/22, 6:59 AM

  This will really hurt Russians with 100M Mir cards in circulation accepted even by Aliexpress...

  That's one way to shoot your own foot Visa/MC.

  I, for one, welcome this, less dependence on Visa/MC, the better.

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_(payment_system)

• by ZoomZoomZoom on 3/5/22, 11:43 PM

  You'd think letting people transfer money outside of the sanctioned country is in accord to the stated goals of sanctions. Is this move really practical, or just a showing MC and Visa are politically in line with the rest of the businesses?

• by hughrr on 3/6/22, 12:12 AM

  I wonder if this is why MasterCard went down for several hours in the UK today?

• by smeej on 3/6/22, 1:38 AM

  Punishing civilians for the actions of their dictator is a despicable form of victim-blaming.

  Russia isn't a democracy. Ordinary people can't oust Putin because the rest of the world makes their lives difficult. This doesn't fix the problem.

  Punishing his existing subjects because he's invading another country to acquire more subjects is despicable.

• by whiddershins on 3/5/22, 11:53 PM

  I don’t understand why we are taking actions that by and large will hurt little people the most.

• by tlogan on 3/6/22, 12:14 AM

  Excellent! I hope this will at least make Putin less popular. And hopefully he will be replaced with somebody else.

  The biggest mistake Putin made is that he was under impression that Russia can survive alone and isolated. That might be possible in 60s but not any more.

• by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK on 3/6/22, 5:55 AM

  Nice. My friend just escaped Russia and left everything behind. Putin outlawed money transfers abroad. His card was the only way he could access funds in his bank account. Now he is stuck with family abroad penniless.

• by justnotworthit on 3/6/22, 6:26 AM

  Do we still have moderators here? See you guys later.

• by antender on 3/5/22, 11:46 PM

  Good job, Mastercard (and Visa)! Now all people opposing Putin and trying to gather money for leaflets will have to use state-created MIR instead. Putin will be pleased!

• by empressplay on 3/5/22, 11:49 PM

  Putin wants an isolated Russia and he appears confident he can mitigate dissent caused by putting the iron curtain back up. This is just playing into his hands and giving him exactly what he wants,

  Even if he pulls out of Ukraine tomorrow he will have succeeded in destroying any chance Russia ever had of joining the West, which I’m becoming convinced has always been a key aim of this enterprise.

  But he can blame the West for all of it now and roll Russia back to being a complete autocracy where citizens have no rights or freedoms at all because Ukraine.

• by mananaysiempre on 3/5/22, 10:50 PM

  As far as I can tell, this will mainly have an impact on people trying to leave, because payments within the country will still work (if badly because the substitute system, NSPK, is shoddy), but the Russian government doesn’t allow crossing the border with more than the equivalent of 10k USD in cash (since several days ago) and most other money transfer companies are refusing service as well.

  So, for example, previously locals employed by companies that valiantly declared their condemnation of Putin by shutting down their Russian offices had three choices: work for a company that does support Putin, leave, or starve. Now it’s just work for a Putin supporter or starve.

  (Not entirely true because at least some of those companies put their employees on paid leave for now, but that’s still probably what it will ultimately boil down to in the relatively near future. Passenger planes being arrested in foreign airports because of sudden lease termination make for a similar one-two punch combo together with Putin’s closure of the land border in 2020: it’s getting very hard—and expensive—to physically leave even if you don’t want anything to do with this [15-year jail sentence] and never did.)

  Good job..?

• by throw-ru-938 on 3/5/22, 11:21 PM

  Since the war started, and the repressions inside Russia tightened (e.g. news stations being taken off air for calling this war a "war"), a lot of us Russians including myself have been fleeing the country, fearing for our safety. Now Visa/Mastercard have left us all without access to money.

  If I were more of a conspiracy type, I'd say they and Putin are on the same side now.

• by partiallypro on 3/6/22, 12:26 AM

  I honestly don't see how company pull outs that hurt citizens have any negative impact on Putin. Feels like we should be focusing on the oligarchs and Putin himself, not the average citizen.

• by nickysielicki on 3/5/22, 11:15 PM

  It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where these sanctions (not just Mastercard and Visa, but all of it as a whole) are reduced without a total regime change in Russia. This is becoming a massive divestment, and I'm not sure it's a great idea.

  There's no guarantee that what replaces Putin is going to be more Western and not reactionary. For every Russian that is cosmopolitan and globalist, there's a dozen Russians in small villages that are True Believers and will see this foreign pressure for what it is: replacing a Russian president that, at least in their mind, they put there.

  Even if you assume that it's going to be a democratic and Western government that rises from the ashes, I think the timescale for this is in years, not months, and I think that the impact on the average citizen in The West is going to be massive while we wait that out.

  I paid north of $80 last night for 18 gallons of fuel, and it's only going to get worse. In Europe, they're staring down the barrel of a significant energy crisis next winter. Energy is everything: it's fertilizer and it's heat. And this is all on the tail of record inflation and a shaky economy.

  Hot take: I think this is going to backfire and we're going to see destabilization in Europe and America before Putin is ousted. War tends to be a boon for the economy in the West, but I see good reason why this time could be different.

• by sonicggg on 3/5/22, 11:08 PM

  This seems like a PR play. What's the end goal of these sanctions? Haven't seen them able to topple governments in Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, etc. They are even less likely to work with Russia.

• by colesantiago on 3/5/22, 11:25 PM

  Please do not use crypto no matter how tempting it is to join the Ponzi scheme as I said before and many other critics like Stephen Diehl (@smdiehl), Molly White (@molly0xFFF) (@web3isgreat creator) and more reliable critics.

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30512981

  Please try use Paypal with a VPN or in another country, Moneygram, Western Union or use cash, better yet use Transferwise (Wise) or buy gift cards to get your money out.

• by pjkundert on 3/5/22, 11:40 PM

  Regardless of what side you're on -- this is a wake-up call. If you ever, as a civilian, get on the "wrong" side of any local or global event: you get to freeze on a park bench.

  Your keys, your coins. Their keys, their coins.

  Anyone who is paying attention, globally, is now realizing that they need to begin moving at least some assets into cryptocurrencies, in their own, personal accounts.

  The problem is: BIP-39 is a train-wreck, from any practical security and reliability perspective. Basically, any "normal" person setting up a Crypto account w/ BIP-39 seed recovery is just gonna lose their money. I estimate 10% a year probability of total account loss: probably greater.

  Use SLIP-39: https://slip39.kundert.ca/macos. Set up an account. Fund it. Get this done.

  Because: you're next...