Visa and Mastercard suspend all operations in Russia

VISA suspended all of their operations in Russia effective immediately, the company announced Sunday.

MasterCard says they will stop all of their operations in Russia; cards issued to Russians will also no longer work after their country invaded and attacked Ukraine 10 days ago.

“Effective immediately, Visa will work with its clients and partners within Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days,” Visa said in a press release. “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.”

The move came after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an impassioned plea during a Zoom call with American lawmakers to restrict the companies’ credit card access in Russia.