The Europeans further tightened sanctions once morest Russia on Tuesday. The Twenty-Seven have indeed given the green light to ban the broadcasting in the EU of the Russian state media RT and Sputnik and to exclude “certain Russian banks” from the Swift messaging system, announced the French presidency of the EU. EU.
The representatives of the Member States in Brussels also approved the prohibition for Europeans to participate in projects co-financed by the Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF. These measures will come into force on Wednesday following publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the EU, which will specify the names of the banks concerned.
Swift, a financial “atomic weapon”
The Western allies announced on Saturday that they wanted to exclude Russian banks from Swift, so as to inflict on Moscow “costs that will further isolate it from the international financial system and our economies”. The sanction is considered a financial “atomic weapon”: the Swift system allows operations such as the transit of payment orders and funds transfer orders between banks, and some 300 Russian banks and institutions use it.
Several European countries initially reluctant to face such a measure, starting with Germany and Italy, which feared being penalized in retaliation for their deliveries of Russian gas on which they are very dependent, ended up rallying to it. .
