The Kremlin announces Russia’s plan to counter US banking sanctions
Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether Moscow had a plan to carry out dollar transactions in Russian banks if the United States imposed sanctions, Peskov told reporters, according to Tass. A plan has been drawn up to address the risks and minimize the consequences of such unforeseen US actions.
He added: “We urge the United States to refrain from provocative actions and to escalate tensions in continental Europe.”
A spokesman for the Russian president went on to say that the Kremlin was concerned that US sanctions were unpredictable.
Bloomberg News recently quoted secret sources and documents as saying that the United States and the European Union were completing a plan to impose tough sanctions on Russia that could be imposed on Moscow if tensions in Ukraine escalate.
According to the media, the sanctions will include a ban on major Russian banks from conducting interbank dollar transactions.
Amid escalating tensions between Russia and the West, the European Union and the United States continued their threatening sanctions against Russia with a new tactic to put pressure on Moscow to offer to remove Russia from the system, IRNA reported. World Bank (Swift), inflict an unprecedented blow on the Russian banking system.
Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have raised the new weapon against the possible cessation of Russian gas supplies to European countries amid an energy crisis and an astronomical rise in electricity prices, isolating Russia in the international financial system.
The Spanish media wrote: “The Russian government has reacted strongly to this and announced that if such a decision is realized, it will stop sending oil, gas and metals to Europe.”
Founded in 1973 by 239 banks from 15 European and North American countries, Swift (Global Financial Interbank Community) is a network that connects more than 11,000 financial institutions worldwide to conduct monetary exchanges. Banking is used. Swift is currently the most dominant international financial system. Therefore, by removing Russia from it, Moscow will not be able to send money inside and outside its country. Therefore, this action is a severe blow to local companies and exporters in this country.
According to the Spanish media, Russia currently has its own “special payment system” (SPFS). Moscow established the Russian payment system in 2014, anticipating such sanctions, early in the conflict with Ukraine. However, only 20% of the country’s national transactions are made through this system and SPFS has only 400 users. That is why the threat of Europe to remove Russia from Swift will affect this country.
Russia-US relations are strained, and Washington has imposed more than 100 packages of economic and financial sanctions on Moscow in the past eight years, and has placed hundreds of Russian officials on its sanctions list.
In recent months, Washington has accused Moscow of plotting to invade Ukraine, and Russian officials have repeatedly denied the allegations.