As we reported on Friday, Goldman Sachs' Allison Nathan asked the question on everyone's lips: "The removal of Russia from SWIFT - the global electronic payment-messaging system - has been referred to as the “nuclear option” for sanctions. Do you agree with that characterization?"
Eddie Fishman - the former Russia and Europe Lead in the US State Department’s Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation - responded in a fascinating way:
"No - it’s not even close to being the nuclear option... SWIFT is just a messaging service. If the US and Europe decided to cut Russians banks off from SWIFT without imposing full-blocking sanctions on them, they could still transact with US and European financial institutions - they just couldn’t use SWIFT to do so."
Fishman went on to point out a potentially even bigger blowback consequence for the West's actions:
"...and in a perverse way, that may actually increase the demand for SWIFT alternatives, such as Russia’s own System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS)."
https://www.zerohedg...-backs-targeted
I think few people realize that this means the END of the DOLLAR as a reserve currency. It's not going to happen overnight, but the direction is now clearly entrenched.
Edited by linrom1, 27 February 2022 - 10:09 AM.
