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MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

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Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#201

Post by fknorangesite »

vimy wrote: post #152
323 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An article from yesterday regarding SWIFT explained this. The western govs issued a "commander's intent" to sanction Russia. That's basically a direction that every financial entity which does transactions with Russia must assume that they too should suspend operations, unless explicitly cleared otherwise. Russia was declared "untouchable", unless you have explicit permission to touch it (like energy markets). https:…

I don’t think that’s true. Otherwise, Mastercard/Visa/Paypal wouldn’t have waited this long. I think Russia is being ‘canceled’. They have become toxic to companies. It’s PR related, not because of government orders.

> I think Russia is being ‘canceled’.

Jesus this term really has lost all meaning at this point, hasn't it.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#202

Post by xdennis »

azth wrote: post #163
Symbiote wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My colleague's brother in Ukraine has had his day to day life interrupted by Russians dropping bombs on the city.

What does this have to do with the post you replied to? Two wrongs don't make a right.

It does when one is caused by the other.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#204

Post by Comevius »

ghiculescu wrote: post #21

I’m not pro crypto or pro Russia, but the fact that it’s so easy to lose ones freedom to transact[0] (regardless of the specific merits here) is troubling. [0] https://mobile.twitter.com/punk6529/status/14944446246304030...

So what's the alternative? I can not trust global institutions all I want and rely on alternatives for everything, but would I be able to trust the alternatives, and what would stop powerful institutions from butting in all the same?

Wouldn't it be just easier to fix our institutions so that we can trust and rely on them?

The crypto economy for example is full of sharks. It's a bigger, insider, scammer dog eats smaller, outsider, bagholder dog world and there is no fixing it. It's a zero sum game. It's unsustainable. It's inhumane. It's too simple to hold up any practical economy at scale.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#205

Post by anonporridge »

addandsubtract wrote: post #184
empressplay wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putin smiles every time another foreign entity pulls out of Russia. So I can’t imagine he’s unhappy about this…

A pyrrhic victory to celebrate on a sinking ship.

Seems to me like it will depend entirely on how well the rest of the world can survive without paying for Russia's oil.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#206

Post by matthewmacleod »

yucky wrote: post #138
theshrike79 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only possible because Russia is the first clear and acceptable Bad Guy since WW2 Germany. There are very few gray areas about what they are doing in Ukraine, so everyone is firing with everything they've got. Weapons of Mass Financial Destruction someone called them.

>There are very few gray areas about what they are doing in Ukraine When you typed this out, did it not occur to you that this feels this way to you due to a self-imposed bubble?

When you realise “bubble” just means “loose group of people I tend to have a lot of overlapping views and interests with”, then you are just saying “is the reason you think this is bad is because of your views on what is bad” and… well, yeah.

I think you can assume that it does occur to most of us that we are all in a bubble to some extent, and that it’s important to be aware of that when forming your own views. It’s also totally possible for someone to come to a firm conclusion about the morality of a particular act without it having to be the effect of a bubble.

It’s easy to picture someone reasonably aware of the context of the invasion, including the restriction of water supplies to Crimea, NATO expansion, the background to the separatist conflicts, Euromaidan, the Azov Battalion, and all the other bits and pieces that we’ve all seen countless articles about over the past two weeks. It doesn’t seem invalid for that person to have a reasonably well-informed view that the actions of Russia are Very Extremely Bad Indeed and that there are “few gray areas”, does it?

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#207

Post by yeputons »

Symbiote wrote: post #143
jimbob45 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As other threads have stated, outbound Russian flights have been permanently shut down beyond a few weeks from now (and all flights are full). It doesn’t seem to be the case that exit is an option for many Russians, money or not.

Trains and buses are still running, even to the EU. Cars, too.

Care and buses are generally not an option. You cannot exit Russia (sic!) on a car/bus/legs unless you have a specific travel purpose and "tourism" or "just because I want to" is not one of them. This was one of COVID-related restrictions and it's still in effect.

Trains are somewhat better, I guess: the Allegro train between Saint Petersburg and Helsinki is open for Russian/Finnish citizens only, but does not require special travel reason.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#208

Post by 331c8c71 »

addandsubtract wrote: post #191
daxuak wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People paying servers to selfhost are also fucked. This makes absolutely no sense since we all know the oligarchs etc will have oversea bankings and stay float. It's the average people who get punished, all for something they have no control over.

No control over? Not with that attitude, I guess.

Seen protests in Belarus?

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#209

Post by anonporridge »

hadrien01 wrote: post #16
tananaev wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that the title says all operations are suspended, but description basically says that foreign cards won't work in Russia and Russian cards work abroad, but does it mean local Russian cards will still work in Russia? That's probably majority of transactions anyway. A bit confused here.

Russia has a home-grown card payment network (Mir) that accounts for 25% of payments. It will probably grow because of the sanctions. Edit: 25% might be false. Maybe 25% of cards are Mir-only? I'd appreciate if any Russian could chime in to clarify the percentages.

Which they created in 2015, after we threatened SWIFT removal for the Crimea invasion, along with a SWIFT alternative called SPFS.

It really wouldn't surprise me if the Russian state fully anticipated and expected these financial sanctions from the West, and have positioned themselves to profit from it after some short term pain.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#210

Post by xdennis »

empressplay wrote: post #110

Putin wants an isolated Russia and he appears confident he can mitigate dissent caused by putting the iron curtain back up. This is just playing into his hands and giving him exactly what he wants, Even if he pulls out of Ukraine tomorrow he will have succeeded in destroying any chance Russia ever had of joining the West, which I’m becoming convinced has always been a key aim of this enterprise. But he can blame the…

> Putin wants an isolated Russia and he appears confident he can mitigate dissent caused by putting the iron curtain back up. This is just playing into his hands and giving him exactly what he wants,

This logic led to embracing China in the hope that it will make them grow more liberal and democratic. Instead it led to US media/sports/gaming industry/etc kowtowing to China and apologizing to them in Mandarin.

The only solution is to contain the totalitarian world.

> Even if he pulls out of Ukraine tomorrow he will have succeeded in destroying any chance Russia ever had of joining the West

This is Russia's doing. We are only reacting. It's beyond ridiculous to blame the west when Putin is invading a free country and threatening us with nukes.

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