USA, EU Claim Readiness To Cut Russia Off SWIFT

The measure is considered as one of the sanctions options.

The United States is ready to tighten sanctions against the Russian Federation, all options for action are being considered in relation to the SWIFT banking system. This was stated on Thursday at a briefing for journalists by Deputy Director of the National Economic Council of the White House Duleep Singh, reports finanz.ru.

He was asked whether the United States is considering cutting Russia off from the SWIFT interbank system for transferring information and making payments. “I repeat, all options are being considered, and we are ready to raise the price when and where we see fit,” said Singh, who is also the deputy assistant to the president for national security overseeing global economic affairs.

Disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT international payment system is a last resort, but it is still considered as one of the options for sanctions, said French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

“Cutting off access to SWIFT is a last resort, but it is still being considered,” Le Maire said on Friday ahead of an informal meeting of EU economy and finance ministers in Paris.

At the same time, Le Maire said that the European Union “wants to financially isolate Russia.” “We are going to hit Russian banks. We want to isolate Russia financially. We want to cut off all ties between Russia and the global financial system,” said the head of the French Ministry of Finance.

Earlier on Friday, European Council President Charles Michel announced that the heads of state and government at an extraordinary EU summit laid the foundation for the adoption of new “massive and painful” sanctions against Russia. According to the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the new package of EU sanctions will affect 70% of the Russian banking market, key state-owned companies, make it impossible to modernize refineries, and stop the supply of aircraft parts.

On Thursday, the US Treasury announced blocking sanctions against VTB. The second largest state-owned bank in the Russian Federation will have all assets frozen in the United States, it will be cut off from the ability to make dollar payments.

Also, Sberbank is disconnected from dollar transactions, but the sanctions against it are milder: Sberbank is subject to restrictions on correspondent accounts without freezing assets.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance imposed sanctions against the authorities of the Russian Federation, in particular against the sons of the special representative of the President of Russia for environmental protection, ecology and transport, member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov, head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, and Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev. The document alleged that the Russian elites affected by the sanctions “used their family members to move funds and hide their fortunes.” At the same time, now they “will be cut off from the American financial system, all their assets in the United States will be frozen, and entry into the country will be blocked for them.”