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Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

Do companies of this size already have the infrastructure built, a kill switch of the sorts, to turn off an entire country’s payment system? I’m thinking not just technology wise, but also things like existing subscriptions and contractual legal stuff between countries, customers, etc. It seems like a monumental undertaking to integrate payment systems for a new country, turning it off seems even more impressive.

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Sanctions aren't new, any sufficiently large international company likely has dealt with this before. And it doesn't happen all at once, you start by turning off new registrants, then you go through records of existing entities that need to be turned off and turn them off, then you continue to watch for whatever you missed.

Visa and Mastercard are not issuing "sanctions", nobody told them to cut off Russia, they are willfully making calculated business decisions.

I don't think this is act of war protest. These corporation know the inside score, they help write the narrative. I predict these companies are giving up Russia for good. This is a signal of a long term shift in world order and these corporate boards know it, because they engineer it with policies and propaganda.

Accenture and McKinsey both closed up shop in Russia. For those two to leave money on the table means there’s definitely something big happening behind the scenes.

Ya, and the oil companies too are not simply pausing, but leaving large investments in the field.

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