Renewal of the trademark by the company does not prove that Visa is returning to Russia. Such an act by the company would be a direct violation of sanctions.
Pro-Russian sources are spreading the news that Visa, one of the world’s largest payment systems, is returning to the Russian market. As «proof» of this, the propagandists cite information that the company submitted a request to Rospatent to renew its trademarks for banking services and cryptocurrency in Russia. As a reminder, the Visa payment system announced its exit from the Russian market in early March 2022 — all Visa cards stopped working in Russia, and Russian citizens became unable to use them abroad. «We regret the impact this will have on our valued colleagues, and on the clients, partners, merchants and cardholders we serve in Russia. This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values,» said Al Kelly, then-CEO of Visa, commenting on the company’s decision.
However, the news that Visa is returning to the Russian market is fake. First, the company did not announce such a decision in any of its official communication channels. And secondly, the payment system currently has no legal possibility to return to Russia due to the effect of American sanctions. Government sanctions require Visa to suspend access to its network for a number of Russian financial companies, including the country’s central bank and the country’s second-largest financial institution, VTB Bank. Therefore, returning to the Russian market would be a direct violation of US sanctions. Even Russian financial experts agree that the resumption of Visa’s work in Russia in the near future is extremely unlikely. We also reached out to Visa’s communications department for comment, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Thus, the renewal of trademarks that Visa indeed carried out in Russia is a standard practice in order to preserve the company’s right to use certain technologies and its own brand and logo in the country. Earlier, other international companies such as Coca Cola and Starbucks, had already done so. Then the propagandists also spread similar disinformation about the return of the coffee chain to the Russian market, which we refuted in the article Manipulation: Starbucks «Plans to Return to Russia».
