Russians Go to Minsk to Get Cards from Belarusian Banks

Visa and MasterCard cards are being issued.

Russians have started going to Minsk to get Visa and MasterCard cards from Belarusian banks. It will be impossible to use them on Russian platforms and Russian shops. However, Russians will be able to use them to pay for foreign services and subscriptions in the App Store and Google Play.

This was reported by gazeta.ru. Also, it is noted Russian citizens will be able to use "Belarusian" cards abroad.

"Given that the Belarusian cards provide Russians with ample opportunities, the Belarusian card tourism will be popular: it's hard to give up the benefits we had before the sanctions. And it's only a matter of a hundred kilometres," the report says.

The card can be opened in Russian rubles, Belarusian rubles, dollars and euros. The card can be replenished through an international SWIFT transfer at a bank office or through the online bank. However, this requires getting another card - Belkart-Mir.

International payment systems Visa and MasterCard have suspended their work in Russia since March 10. Holders of their cards can't pay by them abroad because of this. Even earlier, these systems had disabled their cards at Russian banks hit by Western sanctions.

In addition, the Chinese equivalent of Visa and MasterCard, UnionPay, refuses to co-operate with Russian banks. It fears falling under Western sanctions because of this.