Because of the attack on Ukraine, US credit card giants Visa and Mastercard are restricting their business in Russia. Interior Minister Faeser wants to grant help to refugees from Ukraine regardless of their passport. All developments in the live blog.
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Ukraine will receive more Starlink Internet terminals
Ukraine will receive more Starlink satellite Internet terminals in the next week. This is what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy writes on Twitter. He spoke to SpaceX CEO, Tesla founder Elon Musk: “I am grateful to him for supporting Ukraine with words and deeds,” Zelenskyj writes. Musk said Thursday that Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine. However, experts have warned that the terminals could become targets for Russian airstrikes.
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Faeser: Taking in refugees from Ukraine regardless of their passport
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has agreed to accept refugees from Ukraine regardless of their nationality. “We want to save lives. It doesn’t depend on the passport,” said Faeser of “Bild am Sonntag”. “The vast majority of the refugees are Ukrainians. People from other countries who already had a permanent right of residence in Ukraine bring this status with them,” she explained. “They don’t have to go through a complicated asylum procedure either. For example, we see that young Indians who have studied in Ukraine want to return to their homeland as quickly as possible.”
Faeser called the European cooperation in the care of Ukrainian refugees historic. “For the first time, all EU countries are taking in war refugees together. I hope that this solidarity will also help us to take the next steps towards a common asylum system,” said Faeser.
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The Federal Foreign Office urges caution when making private statements online
Because of the new Russian media law, the Federal Foreign Office is also calling for restraint when it comes to private statements on the Internet and in social media. These could “be associated with unpredictable personal risks,” the agency warned in an update to its travel and security advice for Russia. Germans in Russia warned of “extreme restraint” and advised “alternatively to leave the country”.
In its travel advice, the Foreign Office spoke of a possible arbitrary “imposition of high prison sentences for public statements”. This further restricts the work of foreign journalists and media workers in Russia. The new law has “causing well-known Western media to cease their activities in Russia at short notice”.
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Visa and Mastercard severely restrict operations in Russia
After numerous other Western companies, the US credit giants Mastercard and Visa are also further restricting their operations in Russia because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Mastercard justified the move with the “unprecedented nature of the current conflict and uncertain economic environment” in Russia. Visa said the decision will take effect immediately. As a result, cards issued in Russia will no longer work abroad. Credit cards issued by financial institutions outside the country can no longer be used in Russia.
“All Visa and Mastercard bank cards issued by Russian banks will function normally on Russian territory until their expiration date,” the Central Bank of Russia said. However, Russians traveling abroad needed alternative means of payment.
Visa and Mastercard had previously stopped processing transactions for Russian banks affected by international sanctions over the Ukraine war. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Visa and Mastercard accounted for around 74 percent of payments made with debit and credit cards in 2020.