Visa and Mastercard have now joined PayPal in ceasing business operations in Russia, highlighting the country&39s continuing invasion of Ukraine as the main reason. Many believe that this will lead to the Russians relying more heavily on crypto from now on as a result. Visa has already started working towards discontinuing all transactions in Russia, although it will reportedly take a couple of days. Mastercard has similarly stated that it will stop its network services in Russia as soon as possible. According to Al Kelly, CEO and Chairman of Visa Inc., the payment processor felt obligated to act following Russia&39s invasion of Ukraine, and the deplorable actions that have since been observed. Moreover, Mastercard claims that in addition to barring specific Russian financial institutions, it will also discontinue support for any and all cards issued by Russian banks and shall even prohibit transactions using cards that were issued outside Russia but were still used at various Russian ATMs or merchants.
