Several countries, including Germany, Austria and Hungary, expressed reservations, fearing the impact of such a decision on Russian gas supplies.
“A suspension of Swift would have massive repercussions for German companies in their relations with Russia, but also for making energy delivery payments”the German government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, justified himself on Friday.
In Hungary, Prime Minister Victor Orban welcomed the fact that the sanctions decided on Thursday “do not extend to energy”, guaranteeing “the supply of gas to Hungary and the other EU Member States”.
Swift, an acronym for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a Brussels-based company, subject to Belgian and European law.
Founded in 1973, it is one of the most important banking and financial messaging networks, which allows interbank settlement between financial institutions around the world.
According to the website of the Russian national association Rosswift, Russia is the second country after the United States in number of users of this system, with some 300 member banks and institutions.
Specifically, this system allows, for example, a country like Germany to pay electronically for its purchases of Russian gas.
Blocking a country from this system is considered an “economic nuclear weapon”, since the impact is important for the economic relations of that country with the rest of the world. But to disconnect a State from Swift is also to prevent its own banks from making transactions with the banks of the punished country.
A fact that did not escape the nations most economically dependent on Russia, such as Germany. “You always have to be careful not to harm yourself more than others. In this case, sanctions are meaningless,” said German MP Jürgen Trittin, an international specialist for the environmentalist party.
Even in the European states less dependent on Russian raw materials, such as France, skepticism remains, since the application of this measure is complex.
“Swift is one of the options” but “it is the last option,” French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.
Austria, through Foreign Minister Karl Nehammer, declared that the economic sanctions decided on Thursday by the G7 leaders would already affect 70% of Russian banks in their transactions, making Swift’s blockade useless.
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Situation. According to a specialized site, only 34% of the Russian population is fully vaccinated.
But the point of view is not shared by all. “EU governments that have blocked difficult decisions have disgraced themselves,” said former European Council President Donald Tusk, currently head of the Right-wing EPP Party in the European Parliament. A criticism expressed also by Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson advocated such a move at the G7 meeting, according to a spokesman.
“We want (Swift) to be disabled. Other countries don’t want it,” British Defense Minister Ben Wallace lamented on BBC radio.
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that cutting off Russia from the Swift network remains “an option,” acknowledging that “it is not currently a position shared by Europeans.”
In 2014, shortly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the option had been discussed but ultimately abandoned.
Source: Ambito
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