Allies Of The United States Agree To Restrict Russia’s Access SWIFT Banking System
The United States announced Saturday that it and its allies had reached an agreement to strike at Russia through SWIFT. This is a service that facilitates global payments among thousands of financial institutions.
“We promise to ensure that select Russian banks are removed form the SWIFT messaging network. In a joint statement, the leaders of the European Commission and France, Germany and Italy said that this will prevent these banks from being connected to the international financial system.
When President Joe Biden announced new U.S. Sanctions against Russia on Thursday, , pointed out differences between European nations regarding sanctions against Russia via SWIFT. Biden stated that doing so was “always an option”. “But, right now that’s not what the rest of Europe wants to do.”
One diplomat from Europe said that the previous hesitation of the administration to press publicly for Russia’s access SWIFT had largely been due to concerns that it would draw attention to divisions among allies and expose them. One person claimed that the Biden administration had been trying to promote the idea that the U.S. is in total lock-step with European allies and has not wanted the Europeans to take the lead on SWIFT.
It was a surprise that Italy and Germany did not include SWIFT in the sanctions against Russia. The European economy is more closely linked to Russia than the U.S. and could be affected if Russia is restricted from SWIFT or banned from using it, as well as if access is blocked for banks.
As Russia’s aggression escalates, the European mood has changed.
Saturday’s public statement by Germany’s government suggested that it might support limiting Russia’s access to SWIFT in targeted ways, rather than a total elimination.
“As Russian forces unleashed an assault on Kyiv (and other Ukrainian cities), we are determined to continue imposing costs upon Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system, our economies,” said the joint statement of the leaders announcing Saturday’s SWIFT move.
In addition to the economic sanctions that each nation would collectively impose on one another, the statement included restrictions to stop the Russian Central Bank deploying its international reserves to offset the effects of the sanctions.
The leaders added that actions would be taken against those who help the war in Ukraine or the Russian government’s destructive activities.
The statement stated that “specifically, we commit to taking steps to limit the sale citizenship–so-called golden passports–that allow wealthy Russians connected with the Russian government to become citizens of our nations and gain access to all our financial systems.”
The U.S. has programs that give citizenship to foreigners who invest a certain amount in the country.
The U.S. has two types of investor visa programs: the EEB-5 and E-2.
