The European Union will analyze the consequences of a possible expulsion of Russia from the international payment system SWIFT and then decide whether to use this “economic nuclear weapon”, said the French Minister of Finance, who was openly in favor of this option, according to Reuters.
In particular, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU countries have already decided on a package of sanctions that will cover 70% of the Russian banking market.
However, some countries are reluctant to go further by cutting off Russia’s access to the SWIFT interbank money transfer network due to concerns about payments on Russian energy imports, as well as Russian debts to European creditors.
Therefore, according to the French Ministry of Finance, the EU finance ministers who met today in Paris asked the European Central Bank and the European Commission to prepare “in the next few hours” an analysis of the consequences of such an action.
“Swift is the economic nuclear weapon. SWIFT is what would allow Russian financial institutions to be cut off from other financial institutions around the world,” Lemmer told reporters in Paris.
He clarified that his country is in favor of this option, saying that “when you have a nuclear weapon in your hands you think before using it, some Member States have reservations but France is not one of them”.
It is noted that those who express reservations are Berlin, with the representative of the German government stating earlier today that the expulsion of Moscow from SWIFT would be difficult to resolve technically and would have a huge impact on Germany and German companies in Russia.
Later today, however, at the meeting in Paris, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Christian Lindner appeared more compromising, saying that “we are open to the possibility, but one must understand what he is doing”.
Finally, it is worth noting that Czech President Milos Zeman strongly supported the expulsion of Russia from SWIFT, speaking to his counterparts from the countries on the east side of NATO.
In particular, President Zeman said that the West should cut off Russia from the Swift system for international interbank transactions, because otherwise Ukraine will fall within a few days.
Source: Capital
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