> BERLIN (Reuters) – Western governments are no longer considering cutting Russian banks off from the Swift global payments system, Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reported, citing German government sources.
>
> Handelsblatt reported that, according to its government sources, economic sanctions targeting major Russian banks were being considered as an alternative.
>
> The Russian rouble gained on the report.
>
> A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council rejected the Handelsblatt story.
>
> “No option is off the table. We continue consulting very closely with European counterparts on severe consequences for Russia if it further invades Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
>
> A German government source close to the matter told Reuters: “We can’t confirm. It is not decided yet.”
Keep telling them what you’re NOT going to do to Moscow if they attack Ukraine— that’s a great fucking strategy
You’re supposed to keep them guessing and make them worry about it!
HELLO!!!
NSC denies Reuters report (citing German paper) that West is no longer considering cutting Russia off from SWIFT –
NSC: “No option is off the table. We continue consulting very closely with European counterparts on severe consequences for Russia if it further invades Ukraine.”
Isn’t Russia planning on doing this themselves? Haven’t they built or in the process of building their own system?
US denied that straight away. I guess they have some back up plan for EU like agreement with Norway to increase production and by diverting their CNG supplies from Asia to compensate for russian gas should they choose to invade Ukraine. Otherwise it would ruin the EU economy and that’s why they’re reluctant to impose such a strict sanctions. Failure to diversify at a time they had a chance had led to a stupid dependency they have to deal with now.
I think the US media confirmed it yesterday – apparently US Treasury wrote a report as part of the Administration’s efforts to stop the Republican’s Russia Sanctions bill (which included SWIFT). Apparently the report said that it wouldn’t just be Europe’s economy that would be harmed but also the US economy, and might even lead to a global recession. All in all, it looks like Russia’s economy is just too big to cut off from global trade.
There’s also the risk that the non-western world would just abandon US$ as the medium of exchange and go back to old fashioned promissory notes to fund their trade with Russia or, worse, they could use the China/Russia version of SWIFT and carry on trading with Russia as if nothing has happened. That would be humiliating for the US and Europe because they couldn’t backdown politically even as their economies go in to recession faster than the non-aligned economies.
In other words they publically refused to do what they never intended to do in the first place. Stunning and brave.
8 comments
> BERLIN (Reuters) – Western governments are no longer considering cutting Russian banks off from the Swift global payments system, Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reported, citing German government sources.
>
> Handelsblatt reported that, according to its government sources, economic sanctions targeting major Russian banks were being considered as an alternative.
>
> The Russian rouble gained on the report.
>
> A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council rejected the Handelsblatt story.
>
> “No option is off the table. We continue consulting very closely with European counterparts on severe consequences for Russia if it further invades Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
>
> A German government source close to the matter told Reuters: “We can’t confirm. It is not decided yet.”
Keep telling them what you’re NOT going to do to Moscow if they attack Ukraine— that’s a great fucking strategy
You’re supposed to keep them guessing and make them worry about it!
HELLO!!!
NSC denies Reuters report (citing German paper) that West is no longer considering cutting Russia off from SWIFT –
NSC: “No option is off the table. We continue consulting very closely with European counterparts on severe consequences for Russia if it further invades Ukraine.”
https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1483143139959451648
Isn’t Russia planning on doing this themselves? Haven’t they built or in the process of building their own system?
US denied that straight away. I guess they have some back up plan for EU like agreement with Norway to increase production and by diverting their CNG supplies from Asia to compensate for russian gas should they choose to invade Ukraine. Otherwise it would ruin the EU economy and that’s why they’re reluctant to impose such a strict sanctions. Failure to diversify at a time they had a chance had led to a stupid dependency they have to deal with now.
I think the US media confirmed it yesterday – apparently US Treasury wrote a report as part of the Administration’s efforts to stop the Republican’s Russia Sanctions bill (which included SWIFT). Apparently the report said that it wouldn’t just be Europe’s economy that would be harmed but also the US economy, and might even lead to a global recession. All in all, it looks like Russia’s economy is just too big to cut off from global trade.
There’s also the risk that the non-western world would just abandon US$ as the medium of exchange and go back to old fashioned promissory notes to fund their trade with Russia or, worse, they could use the China/Russia version of SWIFT and carry on trading with Russia as if nothing has happened. That would be humiliating for the US and Europe because they couldn’t backdown politically even as their economies go in to recession faster than the non-aligned economies.
In other words they publically refused to do what they never intended to do in the first place. Stunning and brave.
German screws over Ukraine, again.