Russian shares fell sharply on Friday as investors weighed the impact of western sanctions over Ukraine.
The MICEX index, which is priced in roubles fell 3% and the RTS, which is priced in dollars fell 3.6%.
The fall comes after US President Barack Obama on Thursday said sanctions might be extended to key parts of the Russian economy if Russia took further action in Ukraine.
Russia’s mining, defence and natural resources sectors could all be targets.
The country’s financial services industry is already under pressure following the introduction of asset freezes and visa bans by the US against high ranking Russian officials.
As a result Visa and Mastercard have also stopped providing services to two Russian banks, St Petersburg bank Rossiya and SMP Bank.
Bank Rossiya said the card payment services had stopped services for payment transactions for their clients.
Visa and Mastercard confirmed they had stopped providing services to SMP Bank without providing notification.
via BBC
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