On Thursday, the US Treasury Department announced that it is prepared to impose economic sanctions on any banking institution outside Russia which uses the country’s payment system.

In a press release, the Treasury Department said any financial institution which enters into a new, or expanded agreement with the National Payment Card System (NSPK) “risk supporting Russia’s efforts to evade US sanctions through the expanded use of the MIR National Payment System outside the territory of the Russian Federation.”

The release also announced sanctions on the chairman of the management board and CEO of NSPK, Vladimir Komlev.

Previously the US government had threatened foreign banks with sanctions, especially Turkish financial institutions, in response to their working with the Mir payment system.

Russia first began developing its own payment system in 2014, after the US targeted the country with sanctions and several Russian banks were temporarily shut out of the Visa and Mastercard systems as a result.

Since the new payment system was introduced, Russian banks have issued more than 129 million Mir cards, which are accepted in Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia.