MOSCOW, October 2. /TASS/. The full launch of the Mir payment card in Cuba would not only increase tourist traffic from Russia, but will also strengthen cultural and business ties, Russian Federation Council (upper house or senate) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Monday.

"This will contribute not only to the growth of tourist flow to the island, but also to the strengthening of business, cultural, and humanitarian ties," she said.

She stressed the importance of developing trade, economic, and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries. "This year, such positive dynamics in our bilateral trade continued. In the first half of this year, the volume of mutual trade turnover increased 6-foldv compared to the previous year. Although in absolute figures this does not correspond to our mutual potential, just $73 mln is not enough," she added.

Matviyenko also reported that the Russian side has completed internal procedures for signing the draft intergovernmental program of trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation for the period 2023-2030.

Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Latin American Department told TASS earlier that the Bank of Russia is working with Latin American countries to introduce Russian Mir cards in there, Alexander Shchetinin.

According to General Director of the National Payment Card System Vladimir Komlev, full acceptance of Russia’s Mir payment cards at the international level requires large-scale ecosystem solutions, including political ones. "When it comes to large-scale, full-fledged acceptance of payment cards, larger-scale ecosystem solutions are required at the international level, including political ones, without which the full development of international Mir cards will still be difficult," he said.

Komlev also stated that, despite threats from international authorities, a number of countries are willing to engage with the Russian payment system. At the same time, Komlev stated that there are certain issues with full acceptance of Mir cards in Uzbekistan, but that effort is being done to overcome these impediments. Venezuela and Myanmar will also join the Mir payment system in February, he added.

The United States added General Director of the National Payment Card System Vladimir Komlev to the sanctions list in September 2022, effectively barring him from doing business with US companies or citizens. At the time, the US Treasury indicated that it was prepared to apply penalties for aiding Russia’s efforts to promote the use of the Mir payment system outside of Russia. Although the National Payment Card System is not mentioned on US sanctions lists, financial companies, according to Washington, may support Russia’s efforts to circumvent US sanctions through cooperation with it.

The National Payment Card System was established in 2014, with two missions: to establish a center for processing local transactions for international payment system cards, as well as to issue and promote a national payment card. Since 2015, all Visa and Mastercard transactions have been processed through the National Payment Card System. At the same time, the Mir payment card was created.