/ world today news/ In the event of an “invasion” of Ukraine, Russia will face “severe economic consequences”, Russian banks will not be able to carry out transactions with dollars, US President Joe Biden said during a speech at the White House.
“If they do, if they attack Ukraine, they will pay.” Their banks will not be able to transact with dollars,” the president of the United States said.
“There is disagreement within NATO about what countries are willing to do depending on what happens. The serious imposition of sanctions related to dollar transactions will have a negative impact on the United States, as well as a negative impact on the economies of European countries and a devastating impact on Russia,” Biden said, adding that he relies on NATO unity on sanctions against Russia.
On Monday, the German publication “Handelsblatt” reported that the European Union and the United States no longer consider the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system as part of possible sanctions. Instead, targeted economic sanctions are being developed against Russian banks. However, the US administration did not rule out the possibility of excluding Russian banks from the SWIFT system. The Kremlin considers talk of the threat of sanctions against Russian banks premature.
Last Sunday, the future chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz compared the restriction of Russia’s access to the SWIFT international interbank system to an “atomic bomb” for capital markets, goods and services.
In December 2021, the son of one of America’s leading foreign policy ideologues of the past, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jan Brzezinski, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 2001-2005, called for Russia to be excluded from SWIFT “for a few days .” For its part, the Central Bank of the country pointed to the lack of statements from SWIFT about the possibility of excluding Russia. In the same month, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov noted that Russia’s exclusion from SWIFT does not benefit anyone, otherwise Europe will have to give up Russian goods.
At the end of May 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry allowed the inclusion of the SWIFT international payment system in the “spiral of sanctions”. However, the Foreign Office later noted that the possible exclusion of Russia from the system would not be a disaster.
The management of SWIFT assured the Central Bank of the Russian Federation that there are no risks of excluding Russia from the payment system. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the disconnection of Russia threatens the payment system itself with material and image losses.
We remind you that on April 28, 2021, the European Parliament called for Russia to be excluded from SWIFT. At the same time, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the European Union cannot exclude Russia from the payment system, as it is a private organization. On the same day, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled the presence in Russia of an analogue of SWIFT.
The Federation Council has warned that if Russia is excluded from SWIFT, the EU will have to pay for oil in cash in suitcases. Entrepreneur Oleg Deripaska called for the introduction of the digital ruble as soon as possible to guarantee payments for exports and imports.
In April, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba called on the EU to “exclude Russia from SWIFT” in the event of an escalation in eastern Ukraine. The head of the European Parliament’s leading faction, the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber suggested excluding Russia as a “response” to the “increased military presence” near the border with Ukraine.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already outlined an action plan in the event that Russia is excluded. The Kremlin emphasized that Russia takes into account all possible threats from the West.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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