Ukrainian economist Alexander Khmelevsky believes that the US threats to disconnect Russia from the international interbank SWIFT payment system because of the allegedly impending “invasion” of the Russian Federation into Ukraine are meaningless and have no real force. On Monday, December 13, he announced this to Fakty.
The expert recalled that the exclusion of any of the participants in the system is impossible at the request of one party to the agreement. After the joint decision of the EU countries, only the banking association itself can take such a step.
According to him, banking organizations are not interested in shutting down the Russian Federation, because Russian banks pay considerable membership fees. Also, the exchange of data between financial institutions can be built without working in SWIFT.
“For example, Internet banking, which has become quite popular in recent years, can be used for this. That is, if Russian banks are disconnected from SWIFT, they will very quickly switch to other communication channels and continue to make international payments. At the same time, to transfer funds to their correspondent account, they can use the SWIFT code of their correspondent bank, ”the economist explained.
In addition, the expert emphasized, threats to disconnect Russia from SWIFT can harm its image, but not the economy as a whole. So, Russian banks registered abroad, even if the country is disconnected from the system, will be able to work in it.
According to Khmelevsky, a ban on banks from the United States and Europe to open and maintain correspondent accounts of Russian banks, as well as accounts of enterprises with owners from Russia and Russian citizens, would have a more significant effect on Russia.
Earlier, on December 9, the former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Jan Brzezinski said that Russia should be dealt a “precautionary strike” in the form of disconnecting the country from the SWIFT system. He also proposed to take certain economic measures, for example, “to delay payments for gas and oil.”
On the same day, Viktor Khaikov, Chairman of the Commission on Innovative Development of the Public Council under the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, noted in an interview with Izvestia that the implementation of Brzezinski’s proposal to disconnect Russia from SWIFT for a few days is extremely unlikely, since this would cause irreparable damage to the reputation and reliability of the international payment system. According to him, disconnecting Russia from such a system will lead to the fact that its “largest international participants” will begin to develop and implement “other backup systems for making payments and move away from SWIFT.”
On December 6, CNN, citing sources, also reported that the United States is studying the possibility of imposing sanctions against the Russian national debt and excluding the country from the SWIFT system as part of measures to deter against an “invasion” of Ukraine.
On December 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the question of an “attack” on Ukraine provocative. He noted that Russia is pursuing a peaceful foreign policy, but it has the right to defend its security.
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.
