As reported by Ukrinform, this situation was officially announced on the website of the Samsung company.

“As of April 3, 2024, it will not be possible to add and use Mir cards to Samsung Pay,” he said.

Additionally, according to The Moscow Times, all previously added “Mir” cards will be removed from the program. It will also not be possible to pay for fares on public transport using Samsung Pay (it was still possible to pay in the Moscow metro through the application, there was also the possibility of issuing a virtual Russian card “Troika”).

The South Korean company Samsung stopped the official supply of its goods to Russia and stopped the production of household appliances in the country after the start of the war in Ukraine. Sources told reporters that the South Korean brand will not return to the Russian market until the war against Ukraine is over. Samsung, like other large foreign companies, fears secondary US sanctions.

In February, Miru’s operator, Russia’s National System of Payment Cards (NSPC), came under US blocking sanctions. The rationale was that it would help Russia overcome the restrictions currently in place and maintain its connection to the international financial system. Now cooperation with NSPK threatens with secondary sanctions organizations that dare to protect it.

NSPK was established in 2014 following the introduction of sanctions for the occupation of Crimea in case of problems with international payment systems. The company is 100 percent owned by the Bank of Russia.

Following US sanctions, major banks in many countries refused to work with Mir cards. For example, this was done by Armenian banks, as well as Kazakhstan’s Bereke Bank and Freedom Finance. In addition, the Chinese payment system UnionPay also took measures: MIR-UnionPay joint bagging cards (working on the basis of not one, but two payment systems at once) stopped working outside Russia.

Reportedly, in February, United Arab Emirates banks followed the credit organizations of Turkey and China, limiting dealings with Russia and starting to close the accounts of companies and individuals.