All Apple Pay payments in Russia with local banks have just been suspended and will be increasingly affected by the sanctions. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US government and the European Union imposed a series of economic bans on the country, which include the limitation of foreign transactions to Russian banks. Consequently, Apple Pay, Google Pay and other digital wallets have been suspended in Russia.
As informed on Friday by Russian central bank (via Business Insider), five large Russian banks faced restrictions on their international operations due to the sanctions of other countries.
Apple Pay, Google Pay and others don’t work in Russia
Customers of these banks will no longer be able to use their cards abroad, nor will they make online payments to companies registered in countries that have issued sanctions.
The statement states that the affected banks are: VTB Group, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank and Otkritie. The Russian Central Bank also reports that the cards issued by these institutions they no longer work with Apple Pay or Google Payas both platforms are based in the United States.
It is worth noting that Russian customers will still be able to make contactless payments using their physical cards in Russia, but as of now the digital wallets of the two American tech giants have been suspended in the country indefinitely.
The sanctions were announced two days ago, Thursday 24 February 2022, after the Russian president Vladmir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukrainewhich started a war in the region.
In addition to the United States and the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia have also imposed economic sanctions on Russia.
In related news, we read Apple’s role in the affair: Tim Cook said he will provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine and launch a series of actions aimed at increasingly hitting Vlad’s country. It seems that the war is also moving on the cybernetic side: how will it end?
