Pressure on the financial system is growing
Lindner sees progress in Russia’s isolation
02/26/2022, 8:48 p.m
The EU and the USA are already preparing the next step in sanctions. The financial system of Russia is the target. Linked to this would be an exclusion from the Swift Agreement, which could, however, entail collateral damage.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner sees progress in the maximum isolation of Russia in the financial system. “They will now be completed at the highest level,” said Lindner. According to the FDP politician, Germany has been working intensively with its international partners on the isolation of Russia for some time.
Due to their scope, however, the measures required great precision. The federal government is determined, but at the same time is aware of the enormous scope of the decisions. “We jointly took the initiative at yesterday’s meeting of finance ministers in Paris to examine and limit undesirable effects of Russia’s decoupling from Swift,” Lindner said. “There must be no reason for necessary supplies of raw materials to be interrupted. It’s about exerting the greatest pressure without strategically weakening our position towards Putin.”
According to information from the German Press Agency, the EU and the USA could agree this weekend to exclude Russian financial institutions from the Swift banking communications network. According to top officials, there should be a video conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Saturday evening. The aim is to reach an agreement on further sanctions, it said.
According to the information, other punitive measures could also be agreed. There is talk of freezing the foreign assets of Russian oligarchs. In addition, other Russian banks and in particular the Russian central bank are to be targeted. Among other things, this could prevent Russia from using its foreign exchange reserves to finance the war against Ukraine.
Several German ministers had previously confirmed that the federal government would no longer stand in the way of excluding Russian financial institutions from Swift. “We are working on decoupling Russia from the Swift system in such a way that collateral damage remains as small as possible,” said Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann on Twitter. Due to the expected high costs of the step, Germany was recently the only influential brakeman in the plans to exclude Russian institutes.