Russia, Türkiye to present alternative payment card by start of tourism season

Russia and Türkiye are working on a payment alternative to Mir cards, which they hope to launch soon.

The statement came from Russian-Turkish Business Council Director Alexey Egarmin on December 9, TASS reports.

"The Russian Federation and Türkiye are working on a payment alternative to Mir cards, it will be presented soon... We see that due to foreign corporate pressure on Türkiye's financial system - it is quite strongly integrated into the Western financial system - Mir cards have been refused service," Alexey Egarmin said.

Answering the question about whether it is possible to expect that the alternative to the Mir card will be presented to the public by the beginning of the next season in May-June, Alexey Egarmin answered positively.

"Of course. We must not forget that for Türkiye, the Russian tourist flow constitutes a sizable portion of the overall tourist flow. Of course, Türkiye will make tourist trips more convenient as a result of this. Providing convenient calculation methods is one of the most important conditions," said the director of the Russian-Turkish Business Council.

He added that it is now possible to pay directly in roubles in Turkish hotels, and also that some hotels "really already accept rouble payments, even some shops accept them". However, there are no statistics on how many shops and hotels operate under this scheme, Egarmin noted.