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In early 2014, the United States imposed economic sanctions prohibiting the export of American goods to Russia (Borger, Lewis, & Mason, 2014). MasterCard and Visa, credit card providers, rushed to comply, leaving millions of Russians without access to their credit accounts and several hundred billion dollars of assets frozen (BBC, 2014). At the time, these two American corporations controlled over 90% of the Russian credit card market. While services were restored within days, the situation prompted Russia to issue an alternative credit card – MIR. Since payments are the lifeblood of an economy, Russia also contemplated a law that will require payments providers to register in-country within a stipulated time or exit the country (Dettmer, 2019).