West Strikes Putin with SWIFT Financial ‘Nuclear Bomb’ Over Ukraine Invasion

The United States and its allies from Canada and the European Union have finally activated a long-anticipated financial weapon against Russia over its leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The cutting off of Russia from SWIFT has been a punitive measure that many defenders of Ukraine have been calling for since 2014 when Putin first attacked them.

Freezing Putin’s War Chest, Russia’s Foreign Trade

After Putin ordered a full-fledged military invasion of Ukraine, the calls for removing Russian banks from SWIFT intensified, especially on part of the Ukrainian leadership.

All Western nations have agreed Russia has to be punished by being expelled from SWIFT, a move expected to severely hurt Russian foreign trade.

SWIFT stands for “Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.” It is a Belgium-based network for financial transactions, encompassing more than 11,000 banks around the globe.

The decision to cut off Russia from the global banking system was announced in a joint statement of the United States, the European Commission, and the governments of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy.

The leading Western powers declared they “will hold Russia” accountable and are seeking to ensure his war on Ukraine is a “strategic failure” for the Moscow regime.

First and foremost, they are going to remove selected Russian banks from the international banking messaging system, meaning their ability to operate internationally will be reduced.

The second top measure is imposing restrictive measures, which are going to hamper the attempts of Russia’s Central Bank to “deploy its international reserves” to cushion the blow of Western financial sanctions.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, declared the unified actions of the West are going to prevent Putin from tapping into his “war chest”.

She and other officials made it clear the exclusion from SWIFT and other sanctions will practically block Russia’s imports and exports.

(Snapshot from social media footage of destroyed Russian military vehicles in Kharkiv)

Cracking Down on the Russian Oligarchs Riches in the West

A senior official of the Biden administration said the US and its allies are establishing a “transatlantic” task force to go after assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

The task force would reportedly seek out the numerous financial assets of Russian oligarchs in Western countries, such as yachts, luxury apartments, bank accounts, and the ability of their children to study in “fancy colleges in the West”.

The financial nuclear measures employed by the West are widely expected to cause a “free fall” of the Russian ruble and skyrocketing inflation in the Russian economy. This should be hurting Putin’s ability to wage further wars in Ukraine or elsewhere.

The announcement came as dozens of Western nations announced they are sending weapon supplies and humanitarian supplies to the courageous Ukrainians currently fighting off the Russian invaders.

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