Russia Just Invaded Ukraine

[Solkern]

I work in the payments industry (merchant services). Beginning tomorrow at 4:01 PM EST all Russian issued Visa & MasterCard transactions will not authorize globally. Amex is doing the same but not sure their time table. Russian banks are scrambling to get on China Union Pay but it takes time. The card brands are doing this at the BIN level and thus no way of getting around it.

That’s going to make life very difficult for everyday Russian people…

The cards will still work within Russia, The big issue is the Russians that are abroad, and the foreigners still in Russia.

From my time in Russia, The biggest difference between Russians and the west is, they are just content with just whatever they have, if shit gets bad, they will literally just say, well we got food, we got water, we have a house, we’re fine.