To Alfred Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Visa Inc.

To Michael Miebach, chief executive officer of Mastercard Inc.

On March 5th Visa and Mastercard announced the suspension of their operations in Russia as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  Consequently, cards issued by the Russian banks stopped working abroad, essentially leaving the Russian nationals escaping Russia penniless. 

While the need for stringent financial sanctions on Russia’s leaders and those who support them remains a fact of necessity, limitation of access to Visa and MasterCard, unfortunately, falls short of the market and hurts nobody, but those who oppose the regime in Russia and have no choice but flee the country for fear of persecution.  They are the ones, who have no other means of survival but moneys stored on their Russian bank accounts and their mere survival depends on the access to these accounts through the bank cards, when abroad. Limiting access to financial means for those who are abroad targets the most vulnerable and victimized part of the Russian population—those, who condemn this war and have to urgently leave Russia due to well-founded fear for their safety, freedom and dignity and for the safety for their loved ones.  Limitation on accessing the money is of no consequence to those loyal Russian oligarchs and institutions for they usually have assets in foreign bank accounts, but strips every Russian national forced to flee of any means of survival abroad.

It also limits access to any financial means to millions of Ukrainians and foreign nationals who had lived and worked in Russia and had to abruptly leave the country. 

As President Biden has reiterated, sanctions should be targeted at Putin’s regime and oligarchs, not the Russian people. Those people in Russia who risk their safety, their freedom and their lives to resist and protest this war and fight the totalitarian state that draws the country into a catastrophic crisis, deserve their fare chance to live, strive, fight, to be protected from persecution of their state and have a chance at a future.  Without financial means they stand no chance at doing so.  Thousands are being arrested for anti-war protests.  Many face lengthy detention and prison sentences.  Those Russian people require and deserve protection, which for the time being they can only receive by fleeing the country.  They deserve to have access to their savings, so that they are able to flee and protect their safety and liberty; they deserve to have a shot at that liberty; they deserve a chance to continue their fight, which they could never have while behind prison bars back in their country. 

We urge you to give them this chance; to allow them to raise their voices, to save their freedom, to save their families and their futures.  To do so, we urge you to reverse the decision to ban access to Visa, and MasterCard to holders of Russian bank accounts.