We can add Visa And Mastercard to the growing list of companies that will no longer do business in Russia.
In separate statements that arrived within minutes of each other on Saturday, 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.”
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 U.S. lawmakers. [...]
Visa and Mastercard said any transactions initiated with their cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country, while any cards issued outside of Russia won’t work at Russian merchants or ATMs.
Here's more from CBS on the other companies that have pulled out of Russia:
Car shipments were paused. Beer stopped flowing. Cargo ships dropped port calls, and oil companies cut their pipelines.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is leading some of the world's best known brands — from Apple to Disney and Ikea — to abruptly exit a country that's become a global outcast.
"You basically have Russia becoming a commercial pariah," said economist Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "Pretty much no company, no multinational, wants to be caught on the wrong side of U.S. and Western sanctions."
Along with needing to comply with western sanctions against Russia, companies are increasingly aware of the potential reputational risk of continuing with business as usual in the country, while some have cited their own corporate responsibility standards for pulling back. They're also expressing concern about the plight of Ukrainians as the the war takes a mounting toll on civilians and displaces more than 1 million people.
Follow the link above for a running list of all the companies that have either scaled back or completely cut ties with Russia, which they will be updating.
