National payment system platform: The Central Bank of Russia this Tuesday announced that it had decided to build its own platform for Russia’s national payment system, rather than contracting the project out. The creation of a national payment system leapt to the top of the Russian government’s list of priorities earlier this year after international payment systems Visa and MasterCard abruptly stopped servicing two Russian banks with connections to allies of President Vladimir Putin that had been blacklisted by the U.S. in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The Moscow Times