Russia bars payment-system connections to foreign messaging apps

On December 21, the State Duma of the Russian Federation approved in the third reading restrictions on payment integrations with overseas services. This is reported by «Коммерсант».

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From March 1, 2023, foreign messaging apps, the list of which will be maintained by Roskomnadzor, will be prohibited from connecting money-transfer services.

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In addition, state-owned companies and banks will not be able to use messaging apps to transmit personal data, payment information, transfers and bank account details.

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Telegram, which has been actively developing business payment functionality, could have any company create a bot in the messenger to accept payments. With the adoption of the bill this will be permitted only in Russian social networks — “VKontakte” and “Odnoklassniki.”

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The bill has been forwarded to the Federation Council for consideration.

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Artem Kozlyuk, head of RosKomSvoboda, in a ForkLog comment called the document an attempt by the authorities to control financial transactions.

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“Outside Russian messengers and services, this is problematic for them, so they want simply to ban such a possibility. This is another step toward technological lag and self-isolation,” the expert noted.

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In late November, Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced the creation a non-custodial wallet and a decentralized exchange.

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