Iran to Start Accepting Russian Mir Payment Cards Soon

A photo taken on March 14, 2022, shows a Russian ruble coin and the Russian Mir payment system logo on a bank card in Moscow. (AFP via Getty Images)
A photo taken on March 14, 2022, shows a Russian ruble coin and the Russian Mir payment system logo on a bank card in Moscow. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Iran to Start Accepting Russian Mir Payment Cards Soon

A photo taken on March 14, 2022, shows a Russian ruble coin and the Russian Mir payment system logo on a bank card in Moscow. (AFP via Getty Images)
A photo taken on March 14, 2022, shows a Russian ruble coin and the Russian Mir payment system logo on a bank card in Moscow. (AFP via Getty Images)

Iran will soon start accepting payments made with Russia's Mir bank cards, a top official was quoted by Russia's RIA news agency as saying, making it the latest country to adopt the Russian-made alternative to Visa and Mastercard.

"I think this payment system will be activated in Iran soon," RIA quoted Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Medhi Safari as saying on Wednesday.

Moscow has acted to forge close ties with Tehran since it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 as the Kremlin, decried as a pariah in the West, attempts to build new economic and diplomatic partnerships elsewhere.

South Korea and Cuba have also recently started accepting Mir - which means both "peace" and "world" in Russian. The cards also work in popular tourist destinations 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 are also working to create a rival to the SWIFT payments messaging service that underpins cross-border payments across the global economy, Safari said. Several Russian banks have been ejected from Belgium-based SWIFT since Feb. 24.

"Countries that want to de-dollarize their transactions must have a special system similar to SWIFT," RIA quoted Safari as saying.

"The Iranian and Russian sides have each proposed an option...We have reached a very good agreement on the basis of which we can carry out currency transactions between the two countries."

Russian cards issued by Visa and Mastercard stopped functioning overseas after the world's two largest payment processing networks suspended operations in early March.



2 Mayors Arrested in Southern Türkiye as Part of Crackdown on Opposition

FILE -Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate for Istanbul of Republican People's Party (CHP) wipes sweat off his forehead during a press conference after the local elections, in Istanbul, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/File)
FILE -Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate for Istanbul of Republican People's Party (CHP) wipes sweat off his forehead during a press conference after the local elections, in Istanbul, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/File)
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2 Mayors Arrested in Southern Türkiye as Part of Crackdown on Opposition

FILE -Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate for Istanbul of Republican People's Party (CHP) wipes sweat off his forehead during a press conference after the local elections, in Istanbul, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/File)
FILE -Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate for Istanbul of Republican People's Party (CHP) wipes sweat off his forehead during a press conference after the local elections, in Istanbul, March 31, 2019. (AP Photo/File)

The mayors of two major cities in southern Türkiye were arrested Saturday, state-run media reported, joining a growing list of opposition figures detained since the mayor of Istanbul was imprisoned in March.

Abdurrahman Tutdere, the mayor of Adiyaman, and Zeydan Karalar, who heads Adana municipality, were detained in early morning raids, according to Anadolu Agency. Both are members of the main opposition Republican People´s Party, or CHP.

Karalar was arrested in Istanbul and Tutdere was arrested in the capital, Ankara, where he has a home. Tutdere posted on X that he was being taken to Istanbul.

In total, 10 people were arrested as part of an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor´s Office into allegations involving organized crime, bribery and bid-rigging.

Details of the charges against them were not immediately released by prosecutors but the operation follows the arrests of scores of officials from municipalities controlled by the CHP in recent months.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, widely considered the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ´s 22-year rule, was jailed four months ago over corruption allegations.

The former CHP mayor of Izmir, Türkiye´s third-largest city, and 137 municipal officials were detained earlier this week as part of an investigation into alleged tender-rigging and fraud. On Friday, ex-mayor Tunc Soyer and 59 others were jailed pending trial in what Soyer´s lawyer described as "a clearly unjust, unlawful and politically motivated decision."

Also Friday, it was reported by state-run media that the CHP mayor of Manavgat, a Mediterranean resort city in Antalya province, and 34 others were detained over alleged corruption.

CHP officials have faced waves of arrests this year that many consider aimed at neutralizing Türkiye´s main opposition party. The government insists prosecutors and the judiciary act independently but the arrest of Istanbul´s Imamoglu led to the largest street protests Türkiye has seen in more than a decade.

Imamoglu was officially nominated as his party´s presidential candidate following his imprisonment. Türkiye´s next election is due in 2028 but could come sooner.

The crackdown comes a year after the CHP made significant gains in local elections. Adiyaman, which was severely affected by the 2023 earthquake, was among several cities previously considered strongholds for Erdogan to fall to the opposition.