The European Commission (EC) has decided to remove several Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system that connects worldwide financial institutions for international transactions. This move comes after the EC condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. The EC is trying to keep out Russia from this international financial system.
The goal of this step is to restrict Russian capacity for cross-border transactions. The EC released a joint statement along with the leaders of France, UK, Italy, Germany, the United States and Canada. Their shared goal is to defend Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for this invasion. These countries want to ensure this war fails to give the desired results to Putin.
The EC announced several steps to keep out Russia from the global financial system while condemning the Russian president’s decision to attack Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of European Commission announced five steps aimed at Russian authorities. The first step involves removing several banks of Russia from the international SWIFT financial messaging setup.
In addition to this step, the EC also has plans to paralyze Russian central bank’s assets. The goal is to create barriers that prevent Russian central bank from liquidating its assets. Its third measure is to stop selling the EU citizenship to wealthy Russians involved with the government of Russia. They will not be allowed to become the citizens of the EU countries to prevent them accessing the European financial system.
The EC will establish a taskforce that will make sure all these sanctions are implemented. The first step is to freeze overseas funds of Russia’s elites, officials and their close family members. The Commission will also increase coordination to tackle hybrid warfare and disinformation.
In coordination with 🇺🇸🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇹🇨🇦🇬🇧 I will now propose new measures to EU leaders to strengthen our response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and cripple Putin’s ability to finance his war machine. https://t.co/iU2waDzo9s
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 26, 2022
