After a brief reluctance on the part of some European Union countries, the proposal for United States to expel Russia of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is gaining more and more strength within the bloc of 27, in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.
This last Saturday, February 26, Germany said it was willing to accept a “focused and functional” limitation of Russian access to the interbank connection.
“We are working on ways to limit the collateral damage of an exclusion (of Russia) from the SWIFT system, so that (the measure) affects the right people,” said the German Foreign Minister, in a joint statement. Annalena Baerbock, and her pair of EconomyRobert Habek.
Meanwhile, Mario Draghi, Prime Minister of Italy, assured that he fully supports the line of sanctions of the European Union, “including those within the SWIFT framework”; according to a statement from Draghi’s office reported by Bloomberg.
The UK has been one of the first major Western allies to support the move and has been lobbying for others to join.
So far the proposal is already gaining consensus in France, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland.
However, there is still some resistance because a Russian expulsion from the SWIFT could lead to Russian natural gas supplies, which account for 40% of EU imports, not reaching the countries, since Europe uses SWIFT to send fuel payments.
SWIFT delivers secure messages and payment instructions between financial institutions and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. It was founded in 1973 to end dependency on the telex system.
Source: Larepublica
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
