This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Russian Oligarchs Wave Goodbye To Visa, Switch To Chinese Credit Card
So much for the "Russia is becoming increasingly isolated" meme that the West would like many to believe. As Russia continues to sign de-dollarization deals and trade agreements with its BRICS allies while pushing ahead with retaliatory actions against the US and Europe, it appears the 'sanctioned' friends of Putin are taking matters into their own hands. Billionaire oligarch Gennady Timchenko, among the first to be hit by travel bans and asset freezes by the US, has decided to tear up his Visa and Mastercard, shifting all his credit cards to China's UnionPay, noting that "in some ways it is more secure than Visa - at least the Americans can't reach it."
The Western meme goes something like this...
“Russia risks becoming a pariah state if it does not behave properly,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Sky news this week.
However, after various deals with BRICS and Middle East nations, it appears Russia can find plenty of 'friends'.
And now the sanctioned oligarchs and de-dollarizing... (via ITAR-TASS Google Translate)
Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, because of the U.S. sanctions imposed against him in March 2014 after the annexation of the Crimea to the Russian Federation, has replaced by Visa and MasterCard for card payment system China Union Pay and wallet with cash.
Timchenko March 20 was included in the U.S. Treasury list of persons with whom the U.S. companies and citizens have the right to maintain the business relationship, including U.S. registered Visa and MasterCard.
Businessman said that stopped using these cards payment systems. "We'll have to, as before, to carry a purse with cash," - complained Timchenko, adding that also enjoys card Chinese Union Pay.
"As the sanctions imposed, it immediately issued," - he said. "Excellent work! And accept card in many places. In some ways more secure than Visa. At least Americans will not reach" - said Timchenko.
Inclusion of a businessman in the U.S. sanctions list created trouble for the payments and for his wife. "Wife Gennady Timchenko had the surgery and could not even pay for it, because it was blocked accounts and cards," - said Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 17 during his "straight line", describing the incident as a violation of human rights.
Putin learned about this case, held after the announcement of sanctions meeting of the Russian Geographical Society, co-trustee of which is Timchenko. "Vladimir Putin asked how we feel ourselves to new realities. I said, well, all right, but there are nuances. And he told the story that President then mentioned," - said the businessman.
* * *
While Obama hopes that pressure on the oligarchs will creat some civil strife for Putin, we worry that it will merely corner him into survival mode with signioficant repurcussions for the west.
»
- 36669 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
when you CANT BACKUP YOUR MOUTH WITH A BASEBALL BAT.... sanctions boomerang and ISOLATE THE USSA
when the batboy (obama) has the bat up his ass..... no one takes you seriously
and Merkel doesn't like COLD.... its bad for her POWER....
Guess Visa isn't everywhere you want to be!
I have been doing my own embargo and switch to cash on most transactions.
Why should these big NYC Financial firms get 4% of every transcation I make. NYC is the heart of the liberal beast, starve it penny at a time.
Chinese Union: don't leave the dacha without it!
Me too.
Use cash when possible, don't borrow.
The US is no longer capable of shutting Russia down financially. There are ways around SWIFT.
All the USG is doing is shooting off its own feet.
There are obviously NO capable or intelligent individuals at the Controls.
The rest of the world is picking up on this Fast!.
U.S. and EU Sanctions are killing off the tourism industry … in Ukraine!
by John-Henry Hill, M.D.
August 2, 2014
I am an American who has been living primarily in Ukraine since 2009. My wife and I live most of the year in Odessa, Ukraine situated on the northern shores of the Black Sea. It is a beautiful and historic city, long a port of entry for trade into Europe, with archeological ruins dating back to the ancient Greeks and beyond. Odessa’s primary industries are its enormous port and tourism. Odessa is a Russian city by culture and language; and very few people use the Ukrainian language. But it is most accurately described as a city of many mixed cultures, with people from all over the Mediterranean area and beyond calling Odessa home. Geographically Odessa resembles an enormously long, very narrow crescent or semi-circle surrounding a huge bay. Driving from the Fontanka district in the north to the Illichivsk district in the south can easily take 2 hours. In the center of this crescent perched upon a high bluff is the city center, below which are located the port facilities. To the north and south of the port facilities are enormous beautiful beaches, with boardwalks and streets lined with literally thousands of restaurants, hotels, bars, night clubs and tourist attractions of all sorts. Even the city center appears as if it were designed for tourists, with hundreds of restaurants, 5-star hotels and shopping centers clustered around the famous cobble-stoned Derisbasovskaya Street (no automobiles allowed) and the grand Odessa Opera building. (Indeed, there is one hugely popular restaurant/bar on Deribasovskaya Street where conversations are more likely to be spoken in English or German than Russian. It also serves as an unofficial meeting place for expatriates of many nations.) The people of Odessa are extremely friendly and eager to help foreigners. Even the police, usually unarmed in the “tourist areas”, are extremely polite and even deferential. Odessa is truly a tourist’s paradise.
In past years the end of June through August saw the beaches of Odessa jammed with people. Restaurants and bars, most with open-air tables, would be crowded throughout the day and long into the night. And making reservations at a hotel near the beaches was next to impossible. Even the large parks adjacent to some beaches, where people are allowed to set up tents and small “campers”, would be jammed. However, Odessans love the beach, so distinguishing between the “locals” and the tourists is difficult, especially on weekends and weekday evenings. From my experience the best measures of the tourist population are: 1.) the number of people on the beaches during weekdays; and 2.) the license plates on vehicles parked near the beaches and beach-side hotels (revealing the owner’s country of origin).
Except for downturn in tourism in 2008 resulting from the world-wide economic crash, I have noticed in past years that most (perhaps 90-95%) of the license plates on cars parked near the beaches and nearby hotels were Russian. For many Russians, especially the rapidly expanding Russian middle class, the favorite summer vacation destinations were Crimea and Odessa. These Russians have money to spend – and they spent it profusely on vacations in Odessa. At the beach closest to our home there are two major complexes adjacent to the beach built specifically for tourists. The first is a massive hotel with hundreds of small, but very expensive rooms. If you have a room there with a view of the sea, you could literally jump out the window and land on the beach. It is on a gated street and has its own parking lot. The second complex is a collection of many small family-style cabins in a gated park-like area. The beach is literally less than a hundred feet away. Both of these complexes are surrounded by literally hundreds of restaurants, bars, night clubs and shops within easy walking distance. In previous years during our walks through these two complexes, I rarely saw cars (usually very expensive cars such as Mercedes, BMW or Audi) that did NOT have a Russian license plate. However, when we walked through these complexes last week, I noted one Russian license plate at that hotel complex, while the hotel area itself was nearly deserted. The complex of cabins at the northern end of the beach had NOT one car of any nation. The security guard with whom we spoke told us that NOT one cabin had been rented out, so the owner had closed it down completely, along with his restaurant and nightclub on the same premises.
During the summer weekends the beaches of Odessa normally are jammed with so many people that finding an empty spot on the beach to park yourself and your belongings can require considerable walking. Odessans tend to bring food and drink from home to the beach for a picnic or a barbecue in the beach-side parks. If they make any purchases at the beach-side stores, it is mainly for cold beer. Weekday evenings often have less-crowded beaches, but most of the people are “locals” out for a brief swim, then a walk down the beach or the boardwalk, perhaps stopping for a cold beer and a smoke with friends. It is on weekdays before 5 PM that the tourist population at the beaches can most accurately be judged. One also quickly notices that most of these people are in family groups.
In past years on weekdays around noon-time these family groups and other non-locals quickly filled the beach-side cafes and restaurants, as well as the nearby “souvenir shops”. By late afternoon these families had left the beaches and by early evening the beach-side restaurants and cafes rapidly filled with customers – again primarily families and non-locals. Long waiting times were the norm, as Russians tend to eat very slowly and linger at the table for extended conversations and drinks. (I tell my wife that Russian people go to restaurants in order to have long conversations, with the food and drink being almost an after-thought.)
This summer, with the U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia, the Russian tourists a very few ard far between. During weekdays the beaches are not crowded in the least and during the evening the restaurants are nearly empty. Indeed, on our most recent weekday trip to the beach (one of the most popular beaches in Odessa), the people were sparsely located and numbered perhaps about 10% of a typical sunny weekday in July. Later in the evening, we and one other couple (apparently from Germany) were the sole customers at the open-air tables outside a hugely popular beach-side restaurant. And when I wandered inside to use the restaurant’s bathroom, there was not one customer inside the restaurant. We asked our waitress if business had been slow. Her reply was that so far this summer, that evening was a “busy night”. Finally, during a short walk past several huge beach-side night clubs, usually jammed with young people, we noticed that they were all closed.
My observations and comparisons of past and current economic activity at the beaches of Odessa hardly qualifies as a “scientific study”. However, I believe that these observations indicate that the tourism business on which the economy of Odessa greatly depends is being greatly harmed by the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the U.S. and EU sanctions imposed upon Russia.
Not sure where to put this post but the Ukrainian Government is gearing up to proscecute its own soldiers for shoting down their own IL-76 in June.
This was announced in Kiev today, they had blamed the Insurgents.
Officials of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry are soon to be charged over shooting down a Ukrainian Air Force plane Il-76 near the city of Luhansk in June, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema said on Saturday.
Ukrainian strategic airlifter Ilyushin IL-76, belonging to the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down near Luhansk on June 14. A total of 49 Ukraine’s troops died in the crash.
Ukrainian forces claimed that the plane had been shot down by independence supporters. The self-defense forces announced that the aircraft had been downed with a missile, launched from the territory of the airport, controlled by the Ukrainian army.
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140802/191630409/Ukrainian-Military-Officials-t...
So... Anyone know if UnionPay is accepting American customers right now? There an online application for their cards? ;)
Putin runs circles around the Poser Chief, and everything that Barry Soetoro touches turns to hot steamy dog crap. Barry is the master bumbler, 100s if not thousands of illegals are dying coming into America across the southwest border states as reported by Drudge yesterday. His and Holder's Fast & Furious PSYOPS propaganda program to run guns across the border in to Mexico to be used to commit mass murdering by the drug cartels, (as they high fived for the high murder numbers as they tracked them daily) and then this administration & the Demoncrats DID blame it on the evil guns, gun stores, and the evil 2nd Amendment to brain wash Americans that guns, and gun dealers must be banned in America.
Why any hispanic ,or black American would vote for any commie Democrat is beyond comprehension. (BTW the Democrat party created the KKK to defeat Republicans. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/ku-klux-... ) They are master decievers, and propagandist!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2309727/posts
Thank God some real American Patriots gave up their career at the ATF to expose the program after an American hero U.S. Boarder Patrol agent Brian Terry was kill by one of these guns by an illegal cartel member inside the U.S. But of course all of the truth still hasn't been told due to Barry's sealing documents pen.
Hey oliBARKY boy, don't blame Americans, blame the other oliBARKIES you are having the roe with and leave us serfs alone!
Oligarchs? WTF! Ever notice how Russian businessmen are called “Oligarchs”, but where is all the “news” about American Oligarchs? The mainstream media doesn’t dare use the term, even though 1/2 the Senate and House, are exactly that.
Where the hell is the factual news? American Oligarchs take Control of the Congress “American oligarchs have now taken complete control of both houses of congress, and they also exercise near total control over the White House. It is clear that the average American has little say in how their government operates. The little people are nothing more than cannon fodder to be sent off to the next war of the oligarchs choosing. The powerful Military Industrial Complex or MIC as it is known, is pushing hard for more wars, especially in the Ukraine to improve profits. The Fed Banker have obligingly handed these oligarchs billions of dollars which of course, is still not enough.”
It won't take long for Russia to create its own payment system. Shops on Rodeo Drive will be among the first to accept cards with a red star.
"Currently, Visa and MasterCard take up, respectively, 60 and 35 percent of Russia's credit card market, which according to the Central Bank saw almost 26 trillion rubles ($740 billion) worth of transactions in 2013."
It is hard to become isolated when the worlds largets and fastest growing economy is on your border. With Iran and India willing to take trade and investment. And South America willing to take any business Europe does not want. Lets face it, yes it hurts to lose a lot of EU trade, but the EU will pay just as much as Russia. The only nation getting off free is the USA, our trade is small with Russia. So Washington screams for sanctions knowing only the EU will suffer. Russia is an energy and resource producer, India and China are massive consumers. So a perfect match.
If the USA wants, 5-6 years down the road to sell LNG to Europe at relatively higher prices than pipeline gas right out of existing pipeline, well, Russia will sell it to China.
Washington is scared of a recovering Russia, communism is over, but the USA hates that fact. They loved communism because it kept Russia enslaved, now they are free and capitalist. This makes Washington angry. They hate freedom, and they hate free markets. War is all we have got to sell anymore.
Why is this news? USSA policemen of world protected 10.000 Petro China oil workers in Southern Iraq. China is largest consumer market the IMF/FED/Bankers/war_profiteers the Propaganda needs more propaganda are being shown as liars and brutal authoritarian regime changers. The one thing I have seen on CSPAN is Russian talking Stalin.... Pussy Riot Russia Southern Poverty law center GLBT terrorist .
Wikileaks MH17 congress-edits
"by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists received from the Russian Federation."
Wikileaks MH17 RUGovEdits
a Russian language version of a page listing civil aviation accidents to say that "The plane [flight MH17] was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers".
notice "that class of money-lenders" does not exclude BRICS
"The Rothschilds, and that class of money-lenders of whom they are the representatives and agents -- men who never think of lending a shilling to their next-door neighbors, for purposes of honest industry, unless upon the most ample security, and at the highest rate of interest -- stand ready, at all times, to lend money in unlimited amounts to those robbers and murderers, who call themselves governments, to be expended in shooting down those who do not submit quietly to being robbed and enslaved." by: Lysander Spooner(1808-1887) Political theorist, activist, abolitionist Source: "No Treason #6" (1870)
I love the shit out of my union pay. Back in the day when it first came out it kinda sucked, was accepted nowhere but inside of China and like 1 bank's ATM in Japan (in theory). Then they started piggy-backing off of Discover. Much to the chagrin of Visa. You see, Visa came into China with the intent that if they helped the bank system here setup their own little card network, they would be able to embed themselves and eat a healthy chunk of profit. Except.... all those co-branded cards, the Chinese banks processed them CUP instead of Visa. Then overseas, CUP started signing deals with banks to go CUP as well, which Visa got all pissy about as well. CUP gives better rates which Visa simply cannot match without destroying their entire revenue.
As the CUP network grows larger, there's really jack shit that can be done about it. Even if the us networks want to try and block CUP from coming in, they can't. They are in a position now where they can either concede and give access in exchange for a percentage, or see themselves get cut out entirely. In the good old american way of doing business... they of course agree to concede. However, CUP is long term, they are not going to sit back and continue to give away money for nothing. Visa/MC/Discover/Amex/whatever is destined to simply get cut out of the picture. Consider how Discover went... first it was just for ATMs, then it went to POS, with Discover keeping the lucrative e-commerce to themselves. Now, CUP gets access to it all. Discover is banking on the hopes that by essentially leasing out their network they can boost their revenue. Except that CUP is just flat out better now. Eating away at the Discover revenue. The end game is to cut out Discover entirely.
There was the funny little ruling a few years back which "forced" China to give market access to the US companies. Sure, they give it, but all the cards are still co-branded, and they are all processed as CUP regardless. Simple economics too.. visa charges more than CUP, so no merchant in their right mind will swipe as visa.
Now, here's where the hammer is coming down. Foreign cards are getting hit with harsher limits now. While CUP cards enjoy the domestic limits. This is how China wins at playing the system. The US basically took over the world with their shit, charges crazy rates, creates a situation where you basically have to join the WTO if you want your economy to develop at all. Then, using the WTO, the US forces open the developing economies and allows the US companies to essentially rape them all they want. Well, that works pretty well until someone ignores WTO crap long enough with a strong government effort to develop their own systems... concedes to WTO crap once it becomes meaningless, and then uses the WTO system to reverse rape. UnionPay as of last year started issuing in the US via Bancorp, and that will only expand, as preventing it is a WTO violation. Jack fucking shit the US can do about it, and CUP beats the crap out of US rates, so it should go rather quickly.
India saw this a few years back and went "me too" with RuPay. But India is not like China. The government is a joke and the system is a mess. They finally got around to actually forcing banks to issue the cards, but it's too late. Visa/MC/Amex learned their lesson from China and will probably compete on rates to force RuPay to be a failure in a few years.
The Russia thing is rather interesting for CUP. So far the international issue of cards has been rather limited and as such, the experience in getting it all inked is also limited. Russia opening up to it only adds to the experience and sets a framework that will be applied elsewhere. And again, jack fucking shit the US can do about it. The future system will be one of firewalls. For a LONG time, the Chinese banking system, even for banks with international coverage have treated the China system as seperate due to the capital controls in place. As the system starts opening up more however, and the opposition being the US, you'll start to see it reverse. The US has made it clear that they love the shit out of extorting banks for daring to do business with their little list-of-naughty-nations. So the way to counter this is to either exclude the US entirely, or firewall it from the outside, keeping the systems seperate. The China firewall was self imposed and as such, China can take it down. An imposed firewall however... haha, you're just fucked.