Despite threats from the European Union and the United States, Russia ignored it and decided to invade Ukraine. After the invasion, the American and European governments have imposed a series of economic sanctions on the country which includes restrictions on transactions by Russian banks outside the country.
The result of this restriction assumes that both Apple Pay and Google Pay, have stopped working in the country. As reported by the Central Bank of Russia, five large Russian banks have seen their international operations restricted due to sanctions from other countries, preventing their customers from using their cards abroad.
They can’t do either transfer money to companies that are in the European Union and the United States.
The banks affected by are: VTB Group, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank and Otkritie. The Central Bank of Russia claims that cards issued by these five banks do not work with Apple Pay or Google Pay, as both platforms They are based in the United States.
Russian users can continue to use the cards issued by these banks in Russia without any problembut not through the Cupertino-based company’s or Google’s digital wallets.
A few days ago, the Vice President of Ukraine sent a public letter via Twitter to Apple so that the company will leave without service both the App Store and the Mac App Storea decision that has not yet been pronounced.
This decision would harm users (who could not install any application as we all know). But, according to the Ukrainian vice president, it would make users will rise up against the government demanding that he abandon the invasion of Ukraine, something highly unlikely.