MasterCard suspends all services in Russia • Hacker News Board

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#61

Post by theshrike79 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:20 PM UTC

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...

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.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#62

Post by assusdan » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:20 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #43

assusdan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Russia, all country-local Visa and MasterCard payments are processed by country-owned NSPK system https://nspk.com So all local payments will work, but no abroad payments (and no foreign cards to pay locally in Russia). Probably, I will lost most of my cloud data and compute resources incl. VPNs. Fortunately, some providers do accept SWIFT payments.

You can always ask to borrow someone's card who doesn't live in Russia...

Yeah, that's what I will probably do. However, this doesnt sound secure, and some providers do check if card holders equals to account owner

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#63

Post by johnny22 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:20 PM UTC

nickysielicki wrote: post #49

It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where these sanctions (not just Mastercard and Visa, but all of it as a whole) are reduced without a total regime change in Russia. This is becoming a massive divestment, and I'm not sure it's a great idea. There's no guarantee that what replaces Putin is going to be more Western and not reactionary. For every Russian that is cosmopolitan and globalist, there's a dozen Russians…

>> There's no guarantee that what replaces Putin is going to be more Western and not reactionary.

Who is assuming that's what is going to happen?

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#64

Post by theshrike79 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:20 PM UTC

cgio wrote: post #51

cm2187 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been a problem. There is pretty much a duopoly, look at the difficulties you face if they disapprove your business or politics. More competition is long overdue. But we are testing modern finance by weaponising the financial system. The most problematic move I think has been freezing the central bank's reserve. It might achieve the short term gain of hurting Russia, but what about the long term impact on the t…

I anticipate lots of gold moving physically over the next few months.

Pretty much all of Russia's liquid cash is in physical gold and bills, it'll be interesting to see how that's getting moved and used.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#65

Post by thematrixturtle » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:20 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #43

assusdan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Russia, all country-local Visa and MasterCard payments are processed by country-owned NSPK system https://nspk.com So all local payments will work, but no abroad payments (and no foreign cards to pay locally in Russia). Probably, I will lost most of my cloud data and compute resources incl. VPNs. Fortunately, some providers do accept SWIFT payments.

You can always ask to borrow someone's card who doesn't live in Russia...

And how do you pay them back?

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#66

Post by throw-ru-938 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:21 PM UTC

Since the war started, and the repressions inside Russia tightened (e.g. news stations being taken off air for calling this war a "war"), a lot of us Russians including myself have been fleeing the country, fearing for our safety. Now Visa/Mastercard have left us all without access to money.

If I were more of a conspiracy type, I'd say they and Putin are on the same side now.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#67

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:21 PM UTC

grandpoobah wrote: post #20

Call me insane, but this feels insane. It would be one thing if Visa/Mastercard were being forced to do this, but for them to take it upon themselves to "pick a side" during a global conflict feels really wrong.

War is an insane situation! I’m a strong proponent of corporate neutrality in general, but if it were Microsoft who shot thousands of people last week, Mastercard would have long since cut them off and there'd be no surprise or concern about it.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#68

Post by risyachka » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:21 PM UTC

nickysielicki wrote: post #49

It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where these sanctions (not just Mastercard and Visa, but all of it as a whole) are reduced without a total regime change in Russia. This is becoming a massive divestment, and I'm not sure it's a great idea. There's no guarantee that what replaces Putin is going to be more Western and not reactionary. For every Russian that is cosmopolitan and globalist, there's a dozen Russians…

They are not true believers. They will believe what is on the TV.

If you start running new propaganda - they will start believing it.

And you don't need a western-oriented government in russia. All that is needed is to remove one psycho, after that things will mostly go back to normal after russia compensates all damages and returns all territories.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#69

Post by cgio » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:22 PM UTC

youngNed wrote: post #14

savant_penguin wrote: post #7

"We’re undergoing site maintenance. But don’t worry — as there’s no impact to your ability to make Mastercard purchases or payments" Unless you're Russian I guess. As much as I enjoy the act this could backfire as a show of the tremendous power these companies have: shutting down credit card payments will likely impact large portions of online payments. But at the same time every extra inefficiency in the Russian eco…

> shutting down credit card payments will likely impact large portions of online payments. I can't think of a way to reply to this without being trite or insulting, but genuinely, what do you think is the point of a sanction?

I think the point the gp was making was with regards to sanctions from private entities. My note here is that while the scale of private entities sanctions currently is novel, they themselves are not, e.g. boycotts have happened in the past many times.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#70

Post by TacticalCoder » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 11:25 PM UTC

grandpoobah wrote: post #20

Call me insane, but this feels insane. It would be one thing if Visa/Mastercard were being forced to do this, but for them to take it upon themselves to "pick a side" during a global conflict feels really wrong.

> It would be one thing if Visa/Mastercard were being forced to do this, but for them to take it upon themselves to "pick a side" during a global conflict feels really wrong.

Maybe they were forced. In any case, it really sucks.