A number of Russian banks have faced sanctions due to the country’s current invasion of Ukraine. Apple has suspended transactions for Apple Pay for Russian customers.
Apple Pay in Russia
Since the start of the invasion Russians have withdrawn over US$1.3 billion from banks. Banks such as Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank, Otkritie, and VTB are on the sanction list from the United States. The Bank of Russia confirmed:
Cards issued by banks subject to the sanctions of Western states also work and will work throughout Russia without restrictions. Customer funds in accounts linked to cards are also fully stored and available. At the same time, customers of banks subject to sanctions (banks of VTB Group, Sovcombank, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Otkritie) will not be able to pay with cards of these banks abroad and use them to pay for services in online stores and service aggregators registered in countries that support sanctions.
Also, the cards of these banks will not be able to be used with Apple Pay, Google Pay services, but standard contact or contactless payment on these cards is available in full throughout Russia.
In the Russian market Apple has also:
- Removed LGBT Emojis
- Removed voting guides from the Russian App Store
- Turned Private Relay feature off in the Russian Market
- Allowed government apps on Russian iOS devices
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