MOSCOW, October 15 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – Moscow's Meshchansky District Court has dismissed a lawsuit brought against MasterCard by a Russian national whose banking card was blocked after the US imposed sanctions on Russian officials and several Russian banks over the situation in Ukraine, the plaintiff told RAPSI on Wednesday.

Alexander Moskovkin, deputy CEO at LEXPRO Software Development, filed a lawsuit to collect 400 rubles ($9.90) from MasterCard, including 100 rubles in moral damages and 300 rubles in pecuniary damages.

The plaintiff said he suffered damages due to his card being blocked, a card that was issued by SMP Bank that was included in US sanctions. Moskovkin said he could not use the card to make planned purchases in late March.

This was the first such lawsuit filed against a US credit card system. 

In March this year, Visa and MasterCard blocked credit card services to the customers of Rossiya Bank, its subsidiary Sobinbank, InvestCapitalBank and SMP Bank as a result of US sanctions over Crimea. In response, Russia decided to create a national card payment system that would be controlled by the Central Bank of Russia.