NICOSIA, November 24. /TASS/. Authorities of Cyprus did not instruct their financial institutions about blocking of Gazprombank cards and this can be a unilateral decision of the payment service provider, the Finance Ministry of the Republic told TASS.

"According to our information, the Central Bank of Cyprus, has not issued any guidance/ directive to financial institutions, for not accepting Gazprom UnionPay cards at their ATMs," a spokesperson of the Finance Ministry said.

"The action in question appears to be a unilateral decision by the payment service provider, according to their own risks assessment policy, arising from the existing economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus," he added.

Cards of Russian banks working with the UnionPay system, including Gazprombank cards, are blocked in Cyprus from November 17. Gazprombank is not in the list of Russian financial institutions under EU sanctions.