But Russia's home-grown system, Mir,
remained connected to Apple Pay until that access was removed on Thursday,
according to Russia's National Card Payment System (NSPK).
"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.
Russia's dominant lender, Sberbank, said
that Apple, which did not respond to Reuters requests for comment, had informed
the bank of its decision to further restrict access to its Apple Pay service.
"Further use of Mir cards in Apple Pay
will not be available," the bank said.