The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been escalating for years. However, now, things are really heating up. Reportedly, Russia is deploying its troops near Ukraine’s border. To this end, the US and the EU countries express serious concern about this issue. Western powers are threatening to impose severe economic sanctions against Russia.
One measure being considered is to exclude Russia from the SWIFT international bank transfer system. Moreover, some officials plan to ban Russia from financial transactions in US dollars. However, these drastic measures have not been taken yet. Moreover, some experts believe cutting Russia off from the SWIFT system will have a negative impact on global financial markets. Friedrich Merz, the future chairman of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has warned against excluding Russia from the international banking payment system SWIFT.
"Questioning SWIFT could be the atomic bomb for the capital markets and also for goods and service relations. I would see massive economic setbacks for our economies as well if something like this happened. It would hit Russia. But we would do ourselves considerable harm as a strong export nation," Merz said.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov doubted the effect of these measures. He believed that no one would benefit from cutting Russia off from SWIFT. Otherwise, the EU would have to ban Russian imports.
