Will SWIFT become America's latest financial weapon against Russia?

The Duran – News in Review – Episode 88.

Moscow based Financial Analyst Eric Kraus and The Duran’s Alex Christoforou examine America's weaponization of the financial system as the US Treasury expands sanctions placed on Russia. In reaction to the weaponizing of financial systems, countries are ramping up de-dollarization as American allies like Germany are calling for SWIFT payment system alternatives.

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In a recent speech made to Congress last week, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Sigal Mandelker has confirmed that the US Treasury has frozen Russian-owned assets in the United States worth hundreds of millions of dollars as part of Washington’s sanctions campaign against Moscow since 2013.

“The actions of the US Treasury have had significant consequences for the financial interests of individuals and businesses that were affected, including the blocking of hundreds of millions of dollars of Russian assets in the United States.”

Since January 2017 the Trump White House has sanctioned 217 Russian-related individuals and entities, including oil company Surgutneftegaz and power company EuroSibEnergo. Targets include heads of major state-owned banks and energy firms, and some of President Putin's closest associates.

In prepared remarks Mandelker said...

"As companies across the globe work to distance themselves from sanctioned Russian persons, our actions are imposing an unprecedented level of financial pressure on those supporting the Kremlin's malign agenda and on key sectors of the Russian economy."

The Russian Foreign Ministry is calling the latest round of sanctions as illegitimate, useless, and counterproductive.

Taking note of the America's ever increasing habit to use its leading position in the global financial market to punish "wrongdoers", German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made a stunning statement that the European Union should set up a system that would allow Brussels to be independent in its financial operations from Washington.

“It is indispensable that we strengthen European autonomy by creating payment channels that are independent of the United States, a European Monetary Fund and an independent SWIFT system,” Maas wrote in the Handelsblatt business daily.

Based in Belgium, SWIFT is a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions. The system’s management has stated that SWIFT remains politically neutral and independent.

RT reports that despite such claims of neutrality, the United States has enough power to block transactions through SWIFT. In 2012, the Danish newspaper Berlingske wrote that US authorities managed to seize money being transferred from a Danish businessman to a German bank for a batch of US-sanctioned Cuban cigars. The transaction was made in US dollars, which allowed Washington to block it.

The German Foreign Minister’s words come as the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, and re-imposed sanctions against Tehran. The EU remains committed to the deal despite Washington’s political pressure. “Every day the deal is alive is better than the highly explosive crisis that would otherwise threaten the Middle East,” Mass wrote.

The EU has enforced the so-called Blocking Statute to protect its firms operating in Iran from US sanctions against the country. However, European companies like Total, Maersk and others quit Iran for fear of US sanctions. These firms are dependent on the US-dominated international banking system and international financial markets.

#SWIFT #Russia #Sanctions #TheDuran