The international rating agency Moody’s admitted that access to international payment systems could be restricted for Russia, stressing that such a scenario remains unlikely.
“Although Moody’s considers such moves to be unlikely, the possibility of new restrictions on Russia’s access to international payment systems increases the uncertainty over sanctions, influencing economic and political decisions,” the agency said in a statement.
The agency has affirmed the long-term ratings of the Russian Federation in foreign and national currency at ‘Baa3’ with a ‘stable’ outlook. Moody’s explained their forecast by the relative resilience of the Russian economy to the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and low public debt.
Earlier in the spring, the likelihood of Russia’s disconnection from the world payment systems Visa and Mastercard was admitted by the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. According to him, the sanctions restrictions at the moment are manifested in various forms and quite unpredictably, therefore, given the hostile behavior of the West, nothing can be ruled out.
The Kremlin spokesman expressed the opinion that the Russian payment system “Mir” is already “sufficiently strong” and will eventually gain global distribution. This thesis was supported by Skorobogatova. She noted that the National Payment Card System (NSPK) “works great” and “closes the issues of card transactions” in Russia. In addition, the first deputy chairperson recalled that Mir cards are used on the territory of another 13 states.
.