Source: iDownload Blog
This week as Russian forces invaded Ukraine from multiple sides, other nations retaliated in support of Ukraine. Countries like the United States and other nations in the west, introduced sanctions and regulations as way to punish Russia, among others. These sanctions are directed towards blocking certain equipments towards Moscow so that it stumbles and withdraws its invasion in Ukraine.
One of these sanctions resulted in payment services, including Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay and Google Pay not working in the country. Customers can no longer avail the services of these payment services because certain Russian banks were affected by the sanctions.
The Ukrainian crisis of the Russian invasion continued to Friday, February 25 and countries initiated sanctions as retaliation. The sanctions imposed by the United States and countries in the European Union continued to paralyse assets in Russian banks that were primarily foreign-held.
As a result of these foreign-held assets to be frozen, customers are unable to use cards issued by affected banks. These Russian Banks that are hit by the sanctions are the ones that use U.S.-based payment systems. These payments systems include Apple Pay and Google Pay, among others.
Banks affected by sanctions include VTB Group, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, and Otkritie, according to the Central Bank of Russia.
Along with their cards being disabled by banks, Russian customers will be unable to use their credit cards overseas. They have also lost the ability to make payments online to various firms based in other countries. Online websites or stores based in countries which have imposed these sanctions, will not allow Russian customers to make any payments. This piece of information was shared by a report from the Business Insider.
The invasion in Ukraine by Russian forces has sparked a rage in the stock market. It is referred to as a “Black Swan” event, due to its nature of impact. Additionally, it has resulted in a sell-off of big tech stocks, along with that of Apple Inc. It has already had an impact on the sphere of cryptocurrency.
Moreover, if the US government further forbids any sale of hardware or software to Russia, it will have other repercussions. It will affect any other firm that is presently at business of any form in Russia. Say, in case of Apple, the tech company would not be able to sell any Apple Products like the iPad or iPhone in the country. They would also not be able to manage system updates or operate any function of the App Store.