[blastfromthepast]

Keep in mind that Russian mobile phone operators don't usually run on contracts outside the realm of corporate accounts.

Mobile phones are usually are prepaid cash at numerous offices, many of which (due to widespread fraud, bad laws, etc.) don't even take credit cards.

Also, websites in Russia have a hard time getting people to enter their cards, and they also have difficulty obtaining merchant licenses.

That's where the mobile phone operators kick in, since they can team up with websites and by dialing special numbers on their phones, users can pay sites with their mobile phone balance. This is how big sites such as the huge russian dating conglomerate make money.

Even Yandex and the registry nic.ru don't directly accept credit cards, but rely on an external provider.