> we have decided to suspend our network services in Russia.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30572790
They still work within Russia as the network is not run by MasterCard within Russia.
Cards with Mastercard or Visa logo can still work without Mastercard or Visa processing the payments.
Obviously, they do work in ATMs.
For normal payments it is possible for another company to step in and process the payments. That would be massive effort but not impossible to get done in say couple of weeks.
But that would still mean that the system would be cut off from the rest of the world -- cards issued by Russian banks would not be valid outside of the new system. Cards outside of Russia would not work because it cannot communicate with Russian system. And cards issued outside of Russia would not work inside Russia for the same reason -- the transaction would not be possible to authorise across the border.
Per another comment, the massive effort has already happened over the preceding years, out of the expectation that something like this was going to happen sooner or later: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30572790
> But that would still mean that the system would be cut off from the rest of the world
Could Russian banks adopt China's UnionPay as an alternative to Visa/MasterCard? UnionPay is already accepted in many Western countries due to the desire to gain the business of Chinese nationals (tourists, business travellers, international students, etc). Would it be technically possible for a Western intermediary processor to distinguish a Russian UnionPay card from a Chinese one?
