Domestic credit and debit transactions in the Russian Federation have been largely unaffected by Western sanctions and the voluntary withdrawal of card companies from the country, due to an alternative system for managing domestic payments that was developed in the late 2010s.
In the aftermath of President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the subsequent backlash from the Western bloc, Russia began the development of an alternative payments system that could insulate the country’s economy from Western sanctions.
