After Hungary and Cyprus agreed to cut Russia off from SWIFT, it is only Germany’s position that now stands in the way. LB.ua learned this from sources close to the negotiation over sanction policy.
“No decision on SWIFT has been made, because Germany resists. We must put pressure on it,” said one of the sources.
In order to cut Russia off from SWIFT, the United States and all member states of the European Union must agree to it.
SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is a payment system that is controlled by the National Bank of Belgium and representatives of the central banks of the United States, Great Britain, the EU, Japan, Russia, China, and others. SWIFT delivers secure messages of more than 11,000 financial institutions and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories.
Only one country has been expelled from SWIFT in the history of the system. In 2012, following an EU directive, SWIFT ended its relationship with Iran as part of a series of measures to curtail the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi expressed his hope that Germany and Hungary would be brave enough to support the decision to expel Russia from SWIFT.
“The blood of innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children will be on the hands of those who block the expulsion of Russia from SWIFT,” said the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba. He also called on the international community to isolate Russia from the world entirely, expel its ambassadors, impose an oil embargo, and destroy the aggressor’s economy.