“The European Union will respond in the strongest possible way” – announces the head of EU diplomacy. She stresses that the sanctions will be “the heaviest and toughest” the Community has ever imposed.
It is not yet known what exactly the words of Josep Borrell mean. However, Russia’s shutdown of the SWIFT banking system has so far been seen as the toughest step in terms of sanctions.
The rest of the article is below the video.
What does Russia’s SWIFT shutdown mean?
What is this system? It was created in the 1970s as a successor to the telex. Today the system is used by 11 thousand people. global financial institutions to send secure information and order payments. SWIFT has no internationally accepted alternative and is therefore of paramount importance for the financial world.
However, if Russia is no longer in the system, financial institutions will hardly be able to transfer money to this country.
This means that it will be virtually impossible for the West to buy Russian resources, including oil or gas. This means problems for Europe, but also a collapse of the Russian economy.
Nearly half of the $550 billion Russian exports go to the European Union and Britain. For comparison – less than 10% goes to China. exports, and about 5 percent to Belarus. Russia’s shutdown of SWIFT will most likely end in the collapse of the Russian economy, although the shocks will be felt by the whole world, especially Europe.
