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Bloomberg
Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are suspending their operations in Russia, a coordinated attempt that threatens to further isolate the economy from the international community following President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
In separate statements that arrived within minutes of each other, Visa cited “Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed,†while Mastercard referred to the “unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the uncertain economic environment.â€
Each company gets about 4% of its net revenue from business linked to Russia.
The decisions come hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the companies to halt all business in Russia during a video call with US lawmakers. Representative Brad Sherman, a California Democrat who’s a member of the House Financial Services Committee, tweeted after the call that he agreed with the Ukrainian leader.