The Russian government has prepared a plan in case of possible tough Western sanctions against Russia, such as restrictions on banks’ access to the SWIFT financial communications system or a ban on dollar transactions. This was announced to journalists on Wednesday, February 16, by the head of the Ministry of Finance Anton Siluanov.
He promised that the Ministry of Finance would fulfill all obligations to foreign currency investors. According to him, Russian banks have accumulated enough foreign currency to withstand the restrictions.
“It is clear that we will ensure all deposits, all settlements with our depositors, including those in foreign currency, in these banks. For this, we have enough foreign exchange liquidity, foreign exchange reserves,” the minister said.
Such sanctions would be “unpleasant, but not fatal” for the Russian economy and financial system, the minister said.
Siluanov noted that, judging by Western media reports, the issue of disconnecting Russian banks from SWIFT is “postponed” and “common sense wins.” If such a measure does come into play, Russia will move to other means of transmitting financial information, whether it be the Central Bank-run Financial Messaging System (SPFS), teletype, or “we will carry bills in suitcases (exaggerate),” he said.
In January, US senators published a draft of sanctions against Russia in the event of an aggravation of the situation around Ukraine. The initiative was put forward by the chairman of the committee on foreign affairs of the US Senate, a Democrat from the state of New Jersey, Robert Menendez. He, at the head of 25 of his fellow Democrats, presented the “Act for the Protection of the Sovereignty of Ukraine.” Among other things, there was talk of restrictive measures against a number of Russian banks. It was also proposed to impose sanctions on financial messaging tools such as SWIFT, and to ban transactions with Russia’s primary and secondary government debt.
For several months now, Western media have been reporting information about an allegedly possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. Against this background, American lawmakers are calling for tougher sanctions against Moscow. Russia has repeatedly rejected reports of an allegedly possible invasion of Ukrainian territory.
On January 28, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow was not going to start a war with Kiev, and that Western countries and the United States were “hysterically” developing the theme of an allegedly impending attack instead of inciting Ukraine to comply with the Minsk agreements.
On February 16, the Kremlin commented on the publication of the Politico newspaper that US President Joe Biden, during negotiations with allies via videoconference, allegedly stated that Russia could attack Ukraine on the night of February 16. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that such statements are an unprecedented campaign to escalate tensions in Europe.
Earlier, on February 16, Dmitry Belik, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, called statements about the dates of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine absurd. The deputy said that all statements by Moscow about the absence of plans to attack Kiev in the West are stubbornly ignored, since it is “not so interesting and exciting.”
After the prediction of the Daily Mail and The Sun tabloid that the Russian Federation would allegedly invade Ukraine at 3 a.m. on February 16 did not come true, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked the Western media to immediately provide the entire schedule of “Russian invasions” for 2022 . She joked that she would like to plan a vacation.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
