Apple Closes Loophole That Allowed Mir Cardholders to Use Apple Pay in Russia - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Closes Loophole That Allowed Mir Cardholders to Use Apple Pay in Russia

Apple this week suspended its Apple Pay service for the Mir card payment system in Russia, effectively closing a loophole that had allowed Russians to continue to use the ‌Apple Pay‌ service.

mir russia apple pay
According to Reuters, Mir had remained connected to ‌Apple Pay‌ even after Apple restricted the use of the payments service in Russia on March 1 for Mastercard and Visa cardholders.

Russia's National Card Payment System said on Thursday that Mir access had been removed, and Mir cards will no longer work with ‌Apple Pay‌ in the coming days.

"Apple has informed NSPK it is suspending support for Mir cards in the Apple Pay payment service. Starting from March 24, users cannot add new Mir cards to the service. Apple will stop all operations of previously added cards over the next few days," NSPK said on Friday.

‌Apple Pay‌ support launched for the Mir payment system in July 2021. Mir is Russia's national payment system, with 150 banks issuing Mir cards.

Apple on March 1 ended ‌Apple Pay‌ access in Russia and also stopped all product sales in the country. iTunes and App Store purchases were reportedly halted on March 10.

Popular Stories

apple back to school sans airpods 2

Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer is Coming Soon

Sunday July 12, 2026 7:29 am PDT by
Apple's stores will be rolling out Back to School marketing materials this week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This suggests that the offer will begin in the U.S. in the next few days. Last year, college students and educational staff could receive a free accessory like AirPods 4 or an Apple Pencil Pro with the purchase of a qualifying Mac or iPad model. The Back to School offer is in...
Waze logo

5 New Waze Features Rolling Out Now: Here Are All the Details

Monday July 13, 2026 3:42 am PDT by
Google today announced that Waze is getting a handful of new features, including some Gemini-powered personalization enhancements for Conversational Reporting. Conversational Reporting already uses Gemini when users report traffic incidents like slowdowns, but now you can use it to suggest map updates like road closures or outdated addresses. Saying something like "The road is closed here"...
Mac Pro Feature Teal

Apple's M7 Ultra Chip Designed to Match a 2019 Mac Pro Feat

Sunday July 12, 2026 8:53 am PDT by
Apple's M7 Ultra chip coming in 2028 is designed to support up to 1.5TB of unified memory, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. However, whether such a configuration is offered may depend on the state of the ongoing memory chip shortage. In 2019, Apple released an Intel-based Mac Pro with up to 1.5TB RAM....