How do I buy stuff in Russia?

Overly Serious

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Oct 20, 2019
Mastercard and Visa have suspended trading in Russia. You can still use them if you're INSIDE Russia and have a Russia-issued one, because the Russians built their own payment system and are basically still running it. But if you're outside, they are apparently useless.

I have heard there are Union Pay credit cards. But I don't know how to get one of those in the UK. I need any system that I can make a purchase for some stuff in Russia. A prepaid card, a non-Mastercard/Visa card, whatever. But has to be acceptable by a regular high-street shop over there.

Anyone know how? It's not illegal, btw. It's just regular stuff from a Russian seller.
 
Even if you get past the buying stage, how would they ship it to you? Is there any international postage still running? I know Fedex, DHL and UPS all pulled out of Russia.
 
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Shipping isn't a problem. There's still post from Russia and there are ways to manage even if not. Plus some goods are virtual. The block is literally how to I make a payment to a regular and normal Russian business. I'm looking into prepaid Union Pay cards but no luck as yet. Any help welcome. I hate when payment processors decide that their politics should be my politics.
 
A friend of mine is an artist who is doing comissions, and getting people to pay him after the banks bailed out was hell. His employers couldn't file the money even to a non-sanctioned bank because the American banks refused the transfer. They ended up paying him in bitcoin.

Right now our best bet is to wait until the shitshow ends and Paypal comes back, assuming it ever does.
 
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