To state the conclusion first, adopting PayPal payments for Russia is not currently a viable option to consider. PayPal suspended its service in Russia in March 2022, and around the same time, Visa and Mastercard also withdrew from business in Russia. Combined with multiple financial sanctions from the EU, the United States, and others that block cross-border fund flows originating from Russia altogether, a structure in which a Korean online merchant collects funds from Russian consumers does not, in practice, exist.

Within Russia, domestic card networks and payment infrastructure have replaced the gap left by the withdrawal of international card networks, but since these belong to systems subject to international sanctions, domestic PSPs including Hecto Financial cannot provide integration with them. This page is not a recommendation to adopt the method but a document disclosing the payment constraints of the Russian market, and we recommend reconsidering whether it should be published at all.

In a typical market, the flow would be for a consumer to approve payment via PayPal balance or a linked card or bank account, with the funds reaching the merchant through Hecto Financial. In Russia, however, the starting point of this flow—the consumer's PayPal payment itself—is blocked, so the process never reaches the stage of designing a payment flow or considering SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) handling. Integration discussions cannot proceed until sanctions are eased and PayPal officially confirms the resumption of its service.

Hecto Financial does not provide PayPal integration for Russia. This is not a matter of contract terms or review outcomes but a result of external constraints—sanctions regulations and PayPal's own service suspension—that apply regardless of industry or transaction volume. Merchants with demand from Russian-speaking customers would be more realistic to separately consider adjacent markets not subject to sanctions, such as the Baltic states, which have Russian-speaking populations.

• Confirm sanctions regulations

  Any Russia-related transaction requires a prior review of whether it conflicts with EU and US (OFAC) sanctions lists and export control regulations

• Determine service status

  Whether PayPal's Russia service has resumed must be judged solely on PayPal's official announcements, not speculation

• No workaround collection

  Collecting funds through a third-country account or an alternative remittance route to bypass restrictions may constitute a sanctions violation

• Consider alternative markets separately

  Please review Russian-speaking demand separately based on adjacent markets not subject to sanctions

Hecto Financial's standard settlement structure is to collect funds generated in the local currency, convert them, and pay the Korean merchant in the currency chosen under contract—USD, KRW, or JPY (the settlement cycle follows contract terms). However, since Russia is a market where payment itself cannot be established, this structure is strictly a formal standard that assumes payment would be possible, and no collection, conversion, or settlement of ruble (RUB) funds currently takes place.