Users in Russia report that they often fail to make payments in the Apple App Store and iTunes Store, and to add credit to the account with gift cards. Google will also stop payments in the Play Store in the coming days.
Error message from Russian users
on App Store, March 2022
The problems have been occurring since Thursday morning, iPhones.ru reports. Additionally, users are unable to make payments in the App Store and the iTunes Store, preventing them from making in-app purchases or subscribing. Topping up the credit in the account with gift cards also seems to work poorly, the site reports. The error message recommends to try later, but does not provide any further information.
Apple has not yet responded to the problems and the Russian banks involved have not yet responded. The Sberbank is one of the banks that will be cut off from the international payment system Swift this week, but the other bank mentioned, Tinkoff, is not among them. As a result, it is unclear whether the issues are related to Swift’s shutdown.
Google announced Thursday that it would pause payments in the Russian Play Store. Apple has not made such an announcement yet, but it has suspended sales of products in Russia and limited the functionality of Apple Pay in the country following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.