Russia Wants To Create A Payment System That Works With China

Russia is reportedly aiming to create a mutually compatible payments system with China in an effort to reduce the risk of more sanctions from the West, reported Reuters.

The report, citing an interview with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, reported Russia created a new national payment to lessen its reliance on systems based in the West, such as Visa and Mastercard. Both have stopped providing services to customers of one Russian bank after the White House imposed sanctions, and Russia wants to prevent that from happening again. The sanctions were due to Russia’s role in the Ukraine.

Medvedev is gearing up to meet with his Chinese counterpart in Russia next week and told China Central Television the government is exploring ways to make the new payment system in Russia compatible with Chinese payments systems. The Russian payment system is dubbed Mir, which translates as “World” or “Peace”, while China has a system called UnionPay, noted Reuters.

“We are currently considering ways of harmonizing our national payments system — both the card that we are going to issue, the Mir card, on the one hand, and the UnionPay system, on the other hand. We believe that this would enhance the reliability of financial settlements,” Medvedev said, according to an interview transcript released by his office, reported Reuters.

According to the report, Russian officials and lawmakers were slapped with visa bans and asset freezes due to their annexation of Crimea, and now, the European Union and the White House are warning of more measures that would impact entire economic sectors in the country if Russia escalates the situation anymore. Medvedev said his proposal would remove reliance on global payment systems, including SWIFT.

“In this respect, this kind of cooperation is very useful because, in this situation, no one will be able to block the development of financial traffic,” Medvedev said. “I believe that the use of the yuan in mutual settlements, the use of positions opened in yuan and rubles, mutual financial transaction technologies and the use of co-branding cards — all of this is very useful for our countries,” Medvedev said, according to the transcript.