WASHINGTON, September 15. /TASS/. The US Treasury may introduce restrictive measures in support of "Russia’s attempts to expand" the use of the Mir payment system outside its territory. This is according to a statement on the website of the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
"OFAC is prepared to use these targeting authorities in response to supporters of Russia’s sanctions evasion, including Russia’s efforts to expand the use of NSPK [Russia’s national system of payment cards, operator of Mir payments cards - TASS] or the MIR National Payment System outside of the territory of the Russian Federation," the statement says.
According to OFAC, the NSPK "is not a blocked entity under the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations," however, according to Washington, financial institutions based outside the United States, by cooperating with the NSPK, can "support Russia's efforts to evade sanctions through the expanded use of the National Payment Card System (NSPK)."
The US Treasury also added Chairman of the board of the National Settlement Depository (NSD, part of the Moscow Exchange group) Viktor Zhidkov and the head of the board of JSC National Clearing Center Eddie Astanin to the US sanctions list.