Banks that have been working in Crimea were also added to the sanctions list.

International payment systems Visa and MasterCard blocked a number of Russian banks that were added to US sanctions list two days ago, reports Vedomosti, citing sources from banking sector and representatives of payment systems.

The list of banks cut off from payment systems includes GenBank, KrayInvestBank, Verkhnevoljskii Bank, Sevastopol Marine Bank that have been working in Crimea, as well as InResBank and MosOblBank that are connected to SMP Bank partly owned by Arkadiy and Boris Rotenberg, who were one of the first Russians to be included in sanctions list.

GenBank has already published a statement about consequences of this ban for its operations. Its representatives say they are doing everything possible to restore card operations.

On Tuesday, December 22, US Ministry of Finance decided to toughen the sanctions introduced against people organizations in Russia and other countries.