Crimea switches Visa and Mastercard to Russian payment system

However, Genbank would still accept Visa and Mastercard cards issued by other banks outside Crimea at its ATMs. The bank had been the only financial institution in Crimea to issue cards of foreign operators.

Mir is a Russian payment system established by the Central Bank of Russia in 2015. It is currently accepted mostly by Russia-based companies, such as Aeroflot or Russian Railways, but is gradually gaining acceptance among foreign companies with Russian operations.

The payment system was launched after the US and its allies imposed sanctions against Russia in 2014. The Russian government ordered the establishment of a national payment system due to concerns the country would be cut off from international payment systems.

In 2014, both Visa and Mastercard announced the termination of work on the Crimean Peninsula after the region became the target of Western sanctions after joining the Russian Federation. However, bank cards using the payment systems continued to operate in the Crimea long after Visa and MasterCard were obliged to move their Russian operations to servers in Russia.