LATE REPORT: “We commit to ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system,” the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the European Commission wrote in a joint statement released Feb. 26. “This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.” This is stopping short of removing Russia from SWIFT altogether, and we will have to see the impact. Removing Russia from SWIFT would be the equivalent of the West demanding of Russia: “Stop your military operations in Ukraine or else – we’ll kill ourselves!”
Earlier on Feb. 26, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a tweet that Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi had said in a phone call that he now supported throwing Russia out of SWIFT.
Germany, the largest European economic partner with Russia, also gave way today, as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economy Minister Robert Habeck issued a statement:
