Mir bank cards, Russia’s alternative to Visa and Mastercard , have been considered by Iran to start accepting payments made with them, as per Reuters. com.

Moscow has acted to forge close ties with Tehran since the war in Ukraine, attempting to build new economic and diplomatic partnerships elsewhere. South Korea and Cuba have also recently started accepting Mir, which means both, and the United Arab Emirates intends to start accepting it soon. The cards also work in tourist destinations such as Turkey and Vietnam, and some former Soviet republics.

Both Russia and Iran are under heavy US and European Union sanctions that have blocked their access to key parts of the global financial infrastructure. The two countries are also working to create a rival to the SWIFT payments messaging service that underpins cross-border payments across the global economy, as reported by Reuters. com.

Several Russian banks have been ejected from Belgium-based SWIFT since 24 February 2022. Russian cards issued by Visa and Mastercard stopped functioning overseas after the world's two largest payment processing networks suspended operations in early March 2022. .