Russians can use Mir cards for payments in Iran: official

TEHRAN, May 14 (MNA) – Russian citizens holding bank cards connected to their national payment system, known as Mir, can now use the cards for making payments inside Iran, head of the technology department at the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said.

News ID: ۲۰۰۱۲۸۸

15 May 2025

EghtesadOnline:Nooshafarin Momei made the announcement on Tuesday in a ceremony held in Tehran to unveil the second stage of a project to link up Iran’s Shetab payment system with Russia’s Mir, Press TV reported.

Momeni said that Russian holders of Mir cards can now pay at Iranian terminals equipped with the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology or through the Mir Pay application on their Android smartphones.

CBI Deputy Governor Asghar Abolhasani also said that Iran and Russia will implement the third and final stage of integrating their payment systems in December 2025, whereby Iranian citizens will be able to make purchases through Russian payment terminals by using an application on their mobile phones.

A first stage of the project, implemented in November last year, had enabled Iranian citizens to withdraw rubles from automated teller machines (ATMs) in Russia.

The official IRNA news agency said in a report that Iranians have carried out hundreds of thousands of transactions at Russian ATMs in the past months, adding that the same is expected to happen for the Russians using Iranian payment terminals.

It said that tourist centers popular with Russians in Iran have already been equipped with terminals that have NFC payment options, adding that the system will expand to many more payment gateways in the country in the near future.

Iran and Russia have expanded their financial and banking cooperation in recent years as part of joint efforts to offset the impacts of US sanctions on their economies.