You U.SUnited Kingdom, Europe and Canada moved this Saturday (26) to block access of certain Russian banks to the international payment system Swift as an additional punishment to Moscow, which continues its attack on Ukraine.
The measures, which will also include restrictions on the Russian central bank’s international reserves, will be implemented in the coming days, the nations said in a joint statement that also promised more action to come.
“We will hold Russia accountable and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin,” wrote the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
“Even beyond the measures we are announcing today, we are prepared to take further steps to hold Russia accountable for its attack on Ukraine,” they added.
The move comes after the United States and its allies imposed sanctions this week on major Russian banks, as well as the Russian president himself, Vladimir Putinamong others, while the forces of Moscow were advancing in the heart of Ukraine towards Kiev.
“As Russian forces attack Kiev and other Ukrainian cities, we are determined to continue imposing huge costs on Russia. Costs that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies,” he said. Ursula von der LeyenPresident of the European Commission, the executive of the European Union.
The actions are aimed at preventing Putin from using $630 billion of the central bank’s foreign currency reserves in the invasion of Ukraine and defending a falling ruble.
Cutting Russian banks off the Swift system – the world’s leading international payments network – is a blow to Russian commerce and makes it harder for Russian companies to do business.
“Putin’s government is being expelled from the international financial system,” said a senior US government official.
Swift, or the “Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications”, is a secure messaging system that facilitates fast payments across borders, facilitating the flow of international trade.
It has become the main mechanism for financing international trade. Each year, trillions of dollars are transferred using the system.
The US official told reporters that if one of Swift’s hacked banks wants to make a payment with a bank outside Russia, it will likely need to use a phone or fax.
Russia attacks Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday
The United States and its allies will finalize the list of banks that will be cut from Swift, the official said, adding that banks already under US and European sanctions would be considered first.
Biden on Thursday announced sanctions aimed at limiting Russia’s ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen. Among the targets were state-backed Sberbank and VTB, Russia’s two biggest creditors.
The new measures announced on Saturday will also prevent Russia from “using its war chest”, crippling its central bank’s assets, freezing its transactions and making it impossible for the central bank to liquidate its assets, von der Leyen said.
“We are disarming Russia’s stronghold with this action,” the US official said, adding that further actions against the central bank could be finalized over the weekend.
The United States imposed sanctions on the Central Bank of Will in 2019, after attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia that were claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the Yemen.
At the time, the former president of the United States Donald Trump said the measures, aimed at cutting off Iran’s remaining sources of funding, were “the highest sanctions ever imposed on a country”.
The allies also pledged on Saturday to limit the sale of citizenship through so-called golden passports used by some wealthy Russians to gain residency in Western countries and access their financial systems.
The foreign ministers of European Union will discuss the sanctions package in a virtual meeting on Sunday night, the fourth time they have met in a week.
At the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “decisive action” by the allies would close Russia off from the global financial system. “We will continue to work together to ensure Putin pays the price for his aggression,” he wrote on Twitter.
Source: CNN Brasil
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