Skrill Expands Into Russia Through Partnership with Yandex.Money

Skrill, a popular European e-wallet provider with 35 million users and a leading iGaming payment solution across Europe, has signed a partnership with Yandex.Money, Russia’s largest electronic payment system boasting 13 million users. This agreement, announced last week, marks Skrill's entry into the Russian market, integrating Yandex.Money into Skrill’s network of 140,000 merchants as a new payment option.

"Partnering with Yandex.Money will provide Skrill’s expansive global merchant base with access to consumers in Russia and enable us to grow our global payment network even further with another popular local payment option, ensuring we stay at the forefront of the digital payments market," commented Mohamed Omaizat, VP Group Corporate Development at Skrill.

Maria Gracheva, Business Development Director at Yandex.Money, expressed her excitement about the collaboration, noting that the partnership will allow Yandex.Money users to make payments at a wider range of online merchants.

"Some of the internet’s most popular services, such as Skype, Facebook, and McAfee, are already using Yandex.Money for payments in Russia. Thanks to our collaboration with Skrill, any internet store can now join up with us—particularly those stores that are interested in attracting customers from Russia and other CIS countries," Gracheva said.

This partnership comes amid ongoing negotiations between Russia and US payment giants Visa and MasterCard over the conditions for their continued operation in Russia. The Kremlin has signaled a willingness to relax stringent requirements, including a hefty security deposit, previously set to take effect on July 1st. Russia has also announced plans to develop its own national payment system, although this initiative could take 18 months or longer to launch.