Spotify has removed paid subscriptions for users in Russia.
The streaming giant have already “indefintely” stopped all operations from their Moscow office - in light of President Vladimir Putin ordering troops to invade Ukraine last month - and they are working on “providing support individual support to our personnel” in both Russia and Ukraine.
Now, due to sanctions that have made processing payments - by payment providers such as Visa and Mastercard - have made it “currently not possible” to offer paid-for accounts to users.
A Spotify spokesperson said in a statement: “Due to new restrictions introduced by major payment providers, payment processing is not currently possible for the majority of Premium users in Russia.”
They said that premium accounts “will be cancelled if a recurring payment fails and the account will then be automatically moved to our free service”.
In addition, they have “paused all advertising campaigns running in Russia.”
As well as this, Spotify has also banned all content funded by the Kremlin, such as material by RT and Sputnik after over 3.5 million Ukrainians have become refugees following the attacks - deemed potential war crimes - across the country.
They have ruled it important to not completely cut off services for users in Russia as they think it is “critically important to try to keep our service operational in Russia to allow for the global flow of information”.
