No SWIFT, No Gas: Russia Responds To Western Threats As US Tries To Orchestrate Workaround

While the situation along the Ukrainian border appears to be deescalating - aside from US/UK's panic coalition, a top Russian official says that if the West follows through on a threat to cut the Kremlin off from the SWIFT payment system, Europe won't receive Russian oil, gas, or metals.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was in discussions to ban Russia from the Swift global payments system with the United States, calling it a "Very potent weapon."

"SWIFT is a settlement system, it is a service. Therefore, if Russia is disconnected from SWIFT, then we will not receive [foreign] currency, but buyers, European countries in the first place, will not receive our goods - oil, gas, metals and other important components of their imports. Do they need it? I am not sure," said Zhuravlev - who noted that while SWIFT is convenient and fast - it's not the only game in town when it comes to financial transactions.

"SWIFT is a European company, an association which involves a lot of countries. To make a decision on disconnection, a single decision of all participating countries is required. The decisions of the United States and the UK are definitely not enough. I'm not sure that other countries, especially those in which the share of trade with Russia is significant will support the shutdown," he continued.

In recent years, Brussels regularly raises the topic of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT amid aggravation of relations between Moscow and the West.

TASS. The United States is in talks with major energy-producing countries and companies worldwide to line up a backup plan to provide Europe with energy if Russia invades Ukraine, according to Reuters, citing senior Biden administration officials.

"We've been working to identify additional volumes of non- Russian natural gas from various areas of the world; from North Africa and the Middle East to Asia and the United States," said a senior administration official on condition of anonymity, adding "Correspondingly, we're ... in discussions with major natural gas producers around the globe to understand their capacity and willingness to temporarily surge natural gas output and to allocate these volumes to European buyers."
 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/no-swift-no-gas-russia-responds-western-threats-us-tries-orchestrate-workaround