Western countries have agreed to disconnect Russia from the interbank system for transferring information and payments SWIFT. At the first stage, only banks under new Western sanctions will be disconnected from the system, including Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank and Otkritie.
According to German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States and France will carry out the shutdown. He specified that, "if necessary," other Russian banks will also be denied access to SWIFT.
At the same time, the same countries limit "the ability of the Russian Central Bank to support the ruble exchange rate" by freezing its foreign assets and denying access to international financial transactions.
Sanctions will also be imposed against everyone who supports the special military operation in Donbas. "In particular, it will put an end to the possibility of wealthy Russians to obtain for themselves and their relatives the so-called golden passport and European citizenship", a German government spokesman explained.
The West is creating a special group that will control the freezing of assets of sanctioned companies and individuals.
Washington’s statement on SWIFT sanctions was issued soon. "We are determined to continue forcing Russia to bear the costs that will lead to further isolation of Russia from the international financial system and our economies. We commit ourselves to ensuring the exclusion of individual Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system"б the document says.
