After the annexation of Crimea, Russia developed international payment cards called Mir in 2015 to avoid Western financial sanctions. These cards allow Russians to make payments and withdraw money abroad. But this system is ultimately overtaken by sanctions. Armenia will no longer accept these cards in its banking system.
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Russians exiled in Armenia or those who come there for tourism will no longer be able, from this Saturday, to use their Mir bank card. For fear of being accused of circumventing American sanctions, Armenia announced that its banks would henceforth refuse these Russian cards.
The Union of Banks of Armenia reported that the country’s commercial establishments “ will stop accepting Mir cards from Saturday, due to risks of secondary sanctions “. An exception will be made for those issued by the Armenian subsidiary of the Russian bank VTB, controlled by the Russian state.
Already this week, Samsung Pay, the mobile payment system of South Korean phone manufacturer Samsung, also announced the same decision. Because at the end of February, the US Treasury Department finally included Mir cards in a new sanctions package. In September 2022, the US Treasury Department had already threatened foreign banks with secondary sanctions if they accepted transactions with the Russian Mir system. Turkey had then stopped using this system.
Tensions between Armenia and Russia since the end of 2023
After the start of the war in Ukraine two years ago and the first wave of Western sanctions, Armenian banks received massive amounts of money from Russia.
But Armenia, long close to Russia, has been distancing itself from Moscow in recent years. For example, she joined the International Criminal Court, against the advice of Russia. And relations between the two countries deteriorated further in 2023. Yerevan criticizes Moscow for not having provided assistance when the offensive of its neighbor, Azerbaijan, pushed tens of thousands of Armenians out of the country. enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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