Russia Built Parallel Payments System That Escaped Western Sanctions - The Wall Street Journal

Rocked by sanctions following its annexation of Crimea, Russia built its own payments network, Mir, ultimately taking the sting out of exits by Visa and Mastercard.

Western sanctions have disrupted nearly every part of Russias financial system, but there is one big exception. The domestic-payments system continued to work smoothly after Visa Inc. and Mastercard… [+304 chars]

full article...