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The credit card companies left Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, but the cards are still in circulation.
Most of us rarely think about the plastic cards tucked inside our wallets until they expire.
We expect them to work whenever we buy groceries or pay for a coffee.
But shifting political landscapes can quietly transform how everyday banking works behind the scenes.
A quiet exit
When global financial giants Visa and Mastercard pulled out of Russia in 2022, millions of their plastic cards kept working inside the country anyway. The domestic financial network kept them alive.
Now, officials have found a way to slowly squeeze those remaining cards out of the market.
The National Payment Card System, known as NSPK, plans to slash interbank fees for these transactions.
The rate drops to 1 percent in 2027. By 2028, it will hit zero.
Officials hope this fee squeeze will force banks to phase the cards out completely.
“After international payment systems left Russia, their cards issued by Russian banks were no longer accepted abroad. However, for the convenience of our citizens, the NSPK continues to technologically support their use within Russia. This requires significant expenditure on the NSPK’s part, despite the fact that banks are not creating new products for such cards for citizens, and their holders do not have access to the loyalty programs of these payment systems,” says NSPK CEO Dmitry Dubynin in a statement quoted by Russian news agency RBC.
Squeezing the plastic
Holding onto old tech is proving expensive. RBC reported that Russia’s domestic alternative, Mir cards, handled over 75 percent of all transactions by early 2026. Meanwhile, official data shows Visa and Mastercard still made up about 17 percent of bank plastic at the end of May.
Officials originally extended the life of these cards to avoid chip shortages after Western sanctions hit. However, keeping them alive costs too much money. According to RBC, Alla Bakina from the Central Bank explained that the cards fail to offer full functionality while still draining support costs. Security certificates for the chips also expired at the start of 2025.
Initially, the government tried to pass a law letting regulators set hard expiration dates. Local banks revolted. According to Kommersant, financial firms blocked the plan because they feared sudden market chaos. This new fee-cutting strategy is their compromise.
“We’ve communicated this to the council members; the market has one month to submit its proposals. We’re confident that this gradual reduction in the interbank fee rate will allow banks to painlessly and gradually phase out international payment system cards,” Dubynin added.
