The weaponising of the globall SWIFT payment network as part of the US sanctions against Russia appears to mean little to ordinary Russians since the introduction of the MIR card that can be used to pay for most goods and services within the Russian Federation.

This sanction only really impacts relatively wealthy Russians who were used to transferring funds in and out of Russia via the SWIFT network.

The MIR card uses a top-up system to provide funding and essentially works like a debit card.

Since its introduction in 2015 there were more than 256 million cards issued by the end of Q3 2023 and the card is used to process more than 50% of all domestic card transactions (Wikipedia).

The card is only accepted in 12 other countries at present and so it is of limited use internationally. But it looks like Visa and Mastercard may have a problem re-entering Russia for use in the domestic market after the SWIFT sanctions are lifted.

Necessity is the mother of invention - or innovation in this case.

As EU spokesperson Ursula Von Richthofen might say: Vorsprung Durch Teknik!