On April 28, the European Parliament supported the idea of disconnecting Russia from the international interbank system SWIFT. There was also a proposal to abandon Russian oil and gas supplies “if Russia continues its aggression in Ukraine.”
Another measure involves the freezing of assets and the cancellation of visas of Russian businessmen, their relatives and friends.
SWIFTis an interbank system for exchanging data and making payments. Russia is one of the most active participants in the system worldwide. [thekremlin]
“We cannot rule out any of the potential threats. You can see that the sanctions aspirations of our opponents, especially the United States, continue to increase, ” — according to RBC, Peskov responded.
It will end, where it started.
The first threats came from the UK in 2014. Then the authorities of the country tried to put pressure on the European Union to block the use of SWIFT in Russia as sanctions for the annexation of Crimea.
Then, in 2018, after an armed clash between Russian ships and Ukrainian military vessels in the Kerch Strait, the issue of disabling the payment system was brought up for consideration again.
This time, the proposal to disconnect Russia from the international system was addressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba. The reason for this proposal, the Minister called the need to attract the attention of Russia against the background of the situation in the Donbass, since Kiev suspects Moscow of preparing military actions against the Ukrainian army.
“The situation can develop in both directions, so the reaction of the West is so necessary now to keep from making this decision,” — Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview.
Russian SWIFT.
Due to the threat of disconnecting Russia from the international payment system, it was necessary to create its own system for transmitting information, because this issue was raised more than once by Europe.
“Technologically and practically, everything is ready for this. At the legislative level, too, all decisions have been made, but I emphasize once again: this is not easy, and we would not like it very much, ” — Dmitry Medvedev said.
Nevertheless, the majority of countries in the world are not ready for the simultaneous termination of Russian payments made using SWIFT.
