Russian Banks Booted From SWIFT
It's a bold move, but not really surprising. The other choices were to do nothing, impose different types of sanctions, or get involved militarily. They chose this as the best bad choice.
A joint statement released by multiple governments, including the White House, declared measures against Russia for their ongoing military operations in Ukraine. Among the measures is removal of "select" Russian banks from SWIFT, a "nuclear option" that will quickly hamper Russia's economy.
According to Forbes:
SWIFT, which stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is based out of Belgium and handles payment requests and messages between 11,000 financial institutions across the world, delivering 42 million messages per day in 2021.
The Washington Post likens the system to the “Gmail of global banking,” and the Financial Times notes that while Russia and other countries can still conduct banking transactions with other countries without SWIFT, it would be much more labor-intensive and expensive.
Cutting Russia off from SWIFT would have a significant economic impact: When the U.S. weighed booting Russia from the platform in 2014 due to its annexation of Crimea, former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin estimated Russia’s gross domestic product would shrink 5% in a year without SWIFT, and then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev likened the move to a “declaration of war.”
The FT also notes the move would harm Russia’s ability to profit off the oil and gas exports that make up 40% of the country’s revenue.
Russia has established an alternative payments system and China also has its own system Russia could use, but the Atlantic Council notes both platforms are significantly smaller than SWIFT and wouldn’t sufficiently offset the sting of being cut off.
Ejecting Russia from SWIFT would hurt the EU’s ability to pay for the imports of Russian oil and gas it relies on, however, with one senior executive likening the move to the FT as “opening Pandora’s box.”
Here is the joint statement:
We, the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States condemn Putin’s war of choice and attacks on the sovereign nation and people of Ukraine. We stand with the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people in their heroic efforts to resist Russia’s invasion. Russia’s war represents an assault on fundamental international rules and norms that have prevailed since the Second World War, which we are committed to defending. We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin.
This past week, alongside our diplomatic efforts and collective work to defend our own borders and to assist the Ukrainian government and people in their fight, we, as well as our other allies and partners around the world, imposed severe measures on key Russian institutions and banks, and on the architects of this war, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As Russian forces unleash their assault on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, we are resolved to continue imposing costs on Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies. We will implement these measures within the coming days.
Specifically, we commit to undertake the following measures:
First, we commit to ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system. This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.
Second, we commit to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions.
Third, we commit to acting against the people and entities who facilitate the war in Ukraine and the harmful activities of the Russian government. Specifically, we commit to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship—so called golden passports—that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems.
Fourth, we commit to launching this coming week a transatlantic task force that will ensure the effective implementation of our financial sanctions by identifying and freezing the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies that exist within our jurisdictions. As a part of this effort we are committed to employing sanctions and other financial and enforcement measures on additional Russian officials and elites close to the Russian government, as well as their families, and their enablers to identify and freeze the assets they hold in our jurisdictions. We will also engage other governments and work to detect and disrupt the movement of ill-gotten gains, and to deny these individuals the ability to hide their assets in jurisdictions across the world.
Finally, we will step up or coordination against disinformation and other forms of hybrid warfare.
We stand with the Ukrainian people in this dark hour. Even beyond the measures we are announcing today, we are prepared to take further measures to hold Russia to account for its attack on Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made multiple threats regarding this type of interference. Among the threats that have been made by the Russian government is to crash the International Space Station into America. Heads up!
It’s now painfully clear that the entire fiat financial System is nothing more than a sophisticated Ponzi scam that global elites use to control everyone.
It’s also clear the scam System is quickly approaching its expiration date, hence the urgency to create global economic “problems” with a plandemic and war. Elites are looking for any excuse to crash the System that is destined to implode anyway.
People really need to start educating themselves on how the scam System really works and who “creates” the money we use. We need this knowledge so we can be prepared to rebuild economies on OUR terms after they collapse, not according to their “Great Reset.”
If you haven't yet read this short interview with Vanessa Beeley, you may like it:
Vanessa Beeley
Ukraine, Russia and the repercussions for Syria
The following are my notes for my interview on Syria TV with journalist, Elissar Moualla:
Are you concerned about international tensions. Do you see more political and security hardships ahead? Are you concerned about Europe?
International tensions have been a way of life for decades, of course with their origins in US, UK, Israeli allied agenda to secure global hegemony and to maintain a Unipolar world without economic trade or military competition. Europe should be concerned about Europe - Germany for example has de facto been occupied militarily by the US and UK since the end of WW2. The US alone still has an estimated 40 bases on German territory. Europe needs the Nordstream gas from Russia and other resources from the Ukraine like coal. It is worth noting that the largest coal deposits are in the Donbas region. Effectively when it comes to Russia and a multipolar world Europe is instinctively heading East as is Syria and this is what the US fears above all else. The NATO occupation of Ukraine since 2014 when Obama introduced the neo-Nazi regime is to prevent the collaboration of Russia with the EU. It is also worth pointing out that the US enabled the escape of Ukrainian Nazis at the end of WW2 with this aim in mind - to use them against Russia in the future.
SInce occupying Ukraine in 2014, the NATO backed regime has been carrying out a genocide against the Russian speaking people of Donbass, killing an estimated 10,000 since the Odessa massacre engineered by the US alliance, just as they had done in 2011 in Syria.
NATO has reneged on the Minsk agreements which protected Russia against NATO expansion eastwards and NATO has refused to honour this agreement and to provide Russia with the necessary reassurances to avoid conflict. Russia has now responded and the world is in shock. Will this increase international tensions or reduce them? Only time will tell. I somehow doubt that NATO will come into direct confrontation with Russia, preferring to use their proxy forces they installed in Ukraine which include ISIS fighters drafted in from Syria. NATO has however been providing direct military aid and technology to the Ukrainians including the possibility of nuclear expertise and even potential bioweapon laboratories that are collaborating with the US Ministry of Defence.
Where are these countries heading politically speaking. How do you read what is happening and NATO?
I think that for some time some members of the EU have been trying to break away from NATO and to become more autonomous - this crisis in Ukraine is being used to seal NATO supremacy and to also prevent any EU break-away from the group.
NATO member states Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have triggered NATO Article 4 to launch consultations within the alliance over Russia's attack on Ukraine. According to the NATO website, consultation under Article 4 can lead to collective action among the 30 member states. It has been invoked 6 times since the NATO alliance formed in 1949.
What we are seeing, I believe is a global power shift towards Russia and China which are in ascendancy while the US and UK empires are really dying. This is demonstrated by Russia taking such decisive action at this stage.
How would you describe the western media handling of the current events?
They do what they are paid to do which is to manufacture consent for war and to criminalise any nation or leader that challenges US Coalition hegemony. The western media is nothing more than an extension of national security and intelligence agencies, there is no such thing as “free” press in the West. Of course they are obfuscating the complex reasons for the Russian recognition of the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. As they disappeared the Syrian victims of the US terrorist war waged against the Syria since 2011, they are also erasing the victims of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime.
In your opinion how is the region influenced by the events, especially for us living in Syria?
The first sign of how the region will be influenced is that Israel has attacked Syria three times in one week and the most recent attack last night which resulted in the death of three Syrian Arab Army soldiers and coincided with the start of Russian aggression against NATO aligned elements in Ukraine. Ukraine is a crucial element of the Israeli tech industry, as many tech companies in Israel outsource their work to the Eastern European nation. But beyond that the collaboration between Ukrainian and Israeli military and intelligence agencies is well documented. Israel was instrumental in the regime change operations of 2014 even commanding Ukrainian militants and taking part in rallies. Israeli money sponsored the regime change. Israel has significant political influence in Ukraine. “Ukraine is a den of Russophobic Israelis” whose purpose is to limit Russia’s sphere of influence.
Ukraine has been used as a blackmail by the US to pressure Russia in Syria and to a lesser extent in Yemen. Now that bargaining chip is lost - this may lead to greater belligerence on the part of Russia and the Resistance axis towards the US occupation and sponsorship of terrorism inside Syria.
President Assad has talked about the building of economic partnerships with Donetsk and Lugansk - this must take into account the rich mineral, oil and coal deposits in the Donbass region and in Ukraine as a whole.
Russia is expanding their military hardware and presence in Syria (bringing landing ships to Tartous ready to despatch to the Black Sea) so while the US was very probably trying to force Russia to leave Syria to protect the Russian speaking Ukrainians the plan has backfired and Russia’s answer was to increase their military footprint in Syria and for the Minister of Defence, Shoigu to hold a meeting with President Assad on mutual cooperation followed by the visit of Faisal Miqdad to Moscow on the day that Putin took the decision to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk
Syria is the centre of three wars - Russia/Ukraine, China and US and Iran/Hezbollah and Israel.
The economic sanctions is the style and slogan of the West, how do you view this procedure? How does this procedure affect the targeted countries?
US sanctions began against Syria in 1979, increased in 2004 based on Syria being an extraordinary threat ie supporting enemies of US and Israel - Iran, Hezbollah, Palestinian resistance designated “terrorists” in the US/UK allied playbook. Sanctions are a weapon of mass destruction designed to unilaterally punish the population of a sovereign nation that is denying the US Coalition its agenda in the target region. They are never confined to individuals or named institutions but are always used against the people of a country to coerce them to accept and comply with US foreign policy. In reality by necessity sanctions actually strengthen perceived enemy nations such as Iran and Russia.
The act of withholding means of sustaining life to innocent civilians in order to coerce an entire nation into submission to foreign agendas in the region must surely qualify as economic terrorism. The destruction of essential civilian infrastructure is a war crime, the withholding of essential resources or occupation of those resources is also a war crime. One could argue that the US Coalition is responsible for genocide in Syria under Genocide Convention article II (e) - deliberately inflicting on the group, conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
This brings me to the use of the word “genocide’ in Russian discourse, even from President Putin - this represents a huge threat to the West because they know Russia is capable of carrying through at the highest level - prosecution of countries involved in genocide which could include the US/UK-led alliance in Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Yugoslavia etc
Britain and USA are at the peak of fear and hostility towards Russia, do you understand these concerns?
Declining influence and supremacy. The birth of the Resistance axis very much facilitated by the war against Syria which has given a foothold to Russia, Iran and even China in the region - the very thing that the US and UK were so keen to prevent. Russiaphobia has been the driving force behind more than 75 years of CIA and MI6 intervention in Syria including prior engineered “uprisings” most notably in the late 70s/early 80s. As Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria has said UK foreign policy towards Syria is now nothing more than a vindictive one embittered by the strength of the Russo/Syrian alliance and formerly the Soviet Syrian alliance. Russia is defending global security and international law which the UK and US are systemically violating. Russia is recognised as an honest broker on the international stage while the US and UK are increasingly seen as ignorant, thuggish and dishonest.
Explaining the reasons and consequences of Russia attacking military centers in Ukraine.
Destroying NATO military capability . Precision strikes. The consequences are the demoralisation of Ukrainian armed forces, many are reported to have surrendered and Russia is offering Amnesty if they lay down their weapons.