Apple Pay and Google Pay are suspending support for contactless mobile payments made using Mir cards issued by Russia’s National Payment Card System (NSPK).

“Apple has informed NSPK that it is suspending support for Mir cards in the Apple Pay payment service. Since March 24, loading new Mir cards into the service has become unavailable. Previously downloaded cards will be stopped by Apple within the next few days,” the NSPK says.

Google has also suspended a pilot announced in October 2021 enabling consumers to use Mir cards with Google Pay, a “person familiar with the matter” has told the Wall Street Journal.

“Google Pay users in Russia experienced disruptions after Visa and Mastercard suspended services in the country. The US card networks said in early March that they were leaving the country amid a broad pullout of Western companies,” the WSJ reports.

“‘Google Pay is pausing payments-related services in Russia as a result of payment services disruption out of our control,’ a Google spokeswoman said.

“Russians’ debit and credit cards have continued to work for transactions in the country, even for cards branded with Visa and Mastercard logos, because such transactions are processed through NSPK’s system under an arrangement dating back to 2015.”

Visa, Mastercard and American Express all confirmed that they were suspending their services in Russia, and cards issued by six sanctioned Russian banks ceased to be available for use with Apple Pay and Google Pay following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

The Mir payments system added support for Apple Pay in April 2021.

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