President Joe Biden is weighing whether to publicly support expelling Russia from SWIFT, the high-security network that connects thousands of financial institutions around the world.
He has not made a final decision, multiple people familiar with his thinking say, as more European nations indicate support for such a move.
The decision to trigger the action has always been contingent on sign-off by the European Union, which had been split in a contentious debate for weeks over the action, ultimately choosing not to go forward this week, according to CNN.
Multiple US lawmakers support the sanction and call for immediate action.
On Saturday, Senator Tom Cotton said, “We should expel Russia from SWIFT immediately, and sanction Russia’s central bank.”
According to the Russian National SWIFT Association, Russia has the second-most users after the US, with some 300 Russian financial institutions belonging to the system.
More than half of Russia’s financial institutions are members of SWIFT.
Alicia García Herrero, chief economist for the Asia Pacific at Natixis in Hong Kong, said banning Russia from SWIFT would be a serious blow to the country.
“It’s a big deal since no debt or trade finance payments can be made. It is bigger than stopping EU imports of gas from Russia,” García Herrero told Al Jazeera.
Restricting Russia’s access to global international banking payment system SWIFT would virtually mean a declaration of war, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned on Thursday, according to TASS.
Medvedev reminded reporters that the West once seriously considered the option, and that Moscow is aware of it.
“This would in fact be a declaration of war, but nevertheless it was discussed,” the Russian Prime Minister said, adding that this is one of the reasons why the government is looking into ways to protect the Russian part of the internet.
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FJB is not the smartest tool in the box. FBO created this mess by manipulating Ukraine’s elections and knew it would start a war. FJB needs to allow Europe/EU/NATO to handle FBO’s mess. Minimal involvement. FBO and FJB are circus clowns and may have started WW3.
FJB
FBO