This week, Apple announced that its payment service, Apple Pay, was suspending access to Russia’s Mir card payment system, effectively closing a loophole that allowed Russians to continue using Apple Pay. Mir remains connected to Apple Pay, following a March 1 restriction in Russia on the payment service for Mastercard and Visa cardholders, Reuters reported.
Russia’s National Card Payment System (NSPK) said Thursday that access to Mir has been canceled and that the Mir card will no longer work with Apple Pay in the coming days. NSPK said on Friday: ” Apple has informed NSPK that it will suspend support for Mir cards in the Apple Pay payment service. Starting March 24, users will not be able to add new Mir cards to the service. Stop all operations on previously added cards for a few days”.
Apple Pay’s support for the Mir payment system was introduced in July 2021. Mir is Russia’s national payment system and 150 banks issue Mir cards. Apple ended the use of Apple Pay in Russia on March 1, while also halting all product sales in the country. iTunes and App Store purchases reportedly stopped on March 10.