SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

US, EU, UK to sanction Russian central bank, block SWIFT [apnews.com]

The United States, European Union and United Kingdom on Saturday agreed to put in place crippling sanctions on the Russian financial sector, including a block on its access to the global financial system and, for the first time, restrictions on its central bank in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine [apnews.com].

[...] Saturday's move includes cutting key Russian banks out of the SWIFT financial messaging system, which daily moves countless billions of dollars around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions around the world. The fine print of the sanctions was still being ironed out over the weekend, officials said, as they work to limit the impact of the restrictions on other economies and European purchases of Russian energy.

Allies on both sides of the Atlantic also considered the SWIFT option in 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimea and backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia declared then that kicking it out of SWIFT would be equivalent to a declaration of war. The allies — criticized ever after for responding too weakly to Russia's 2014 aggression — shelved the idea. Russia since then has tried to develop its own financial transfer system, with limited success.

See also: It is incomprehensible that Russia is still being allowed to use the Swift system [independent.co.uk]

Previously: Russia Has Launched Full Scale Invasion of Ukraine - Multiple Sources [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission