Rome, February 26, 2022 – Germany also seems ready to give the green light to “sanction of sanctions” against Russia, hence the exclusion of its banks from the system of Swift international payments. At the beginning of the day too Italy and Hungary have made it known that they are ready to align themselves on a possible decision in this sense by theEuropean Union. In particular today, the premier Mario Draghi “he reiterated to the Ukrainian president Zelensky that Italy supports and will fully support the European Union line on sanctions on Russiaincluding those in the Swift area, “a note from Palazzo Chigi reported. While the country that has remained most reluctant so far is the Germany. But cornered by the increasingly noisy chorus of criticism both at home and abroad, Berlin has also begun to open the door to the exclusion of Moscow from the international system of financial transactions managed by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
“We are working at full speed for one targeted and functional exclusion of Russia “, said the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the owner of the Economy Robert Habeck. This is, said the head of German diplomacy, an approach that aims to “hit the right ones”. It is the beginning of a turning point that is explained by the growing loneliness (and embarrassment) of Olaf’s government Scholz in the “battle of the Swift”: what according to many, once enacted, could be the most painful sanction for Russia, even more than the tanks that are ravaging Ukraine. There are more and more voices in Europe according to which excluding Moscow would be equivalent to stop all banking activity in the Russian Federation, cutting it out of the global financial system. Viktor’s Hungary too Orban, so far, he too skeptical, has made it known that he will support all EU sanctions: “It is time to be united, we must work for peace”. Berlin resisted until the end. Despite the increasing criticism and tensions even at home.
Analysts explain that the Swift system – used from over 11 thousand financial institutions in more than 200 countries – is fundamental for the global flow of money: in practice, with Russia’s “bottleneck”, the impact on many German companies will be enormous. The German finance minister, the liberal Christian Lindnerhad justified his “perplexities” about the exclusion of Moscow from the Swift by stating that Berlin would no longer be unable to pay for gas (about 50% of its gas needs come from Russia) and therefore would end up being unable to import it: a gas lockdown, in short. Also due to the fact that no Germany could no longer carry out transactions to the German branches of the Russian energy giants. The other major problem is the survival of hundreds of German companies operating on the soil of the Russian Federation.