West unleashes SWIFT bans, more crushing penalties on Russia
AP News, February 27, 2022
From Russia Without Love
I thought I had problems. But then I read about President Putin of Russia. Now that man has real problems. In addition to presidenting a big country of communists, he now has to coordinate a war, deal with economic sanctions imposed by fossil-fueled democracies… and also show up regularly for judo practice and swimming sessions. How does he do it?
Putin tried to explain why he attacked Ukraine. He wanted to protect its people from genocide. His aim was the ‘demilitarisation and de-Nazification’ of Ukraine. But did anyone believe him? Of course not. Western nations have claimed there has been no genocide in Ukraine… And how could a nation be Nazificated if its president is Jewish?
And so, Ukraine supporters like the US, UK and EU decided to retaliate, but in a way that will not start World War III. They won’t send ‘boots on the ground’ troops to fight directly. Instead, they would impose a ton of economic and political sanctions on Russia. The idea was to arm twist Putin into giving up his erring, warring ways.
But will sanctions be enough to stop Putin? And what exactly are these sanctions anyway? I read somewhere that Netflix, Levi’s, Coca Cola and McDonalds stopped their services in Russia. So Russians will no longer be able to lounge around in their favourite jeans, eat their favourite burger, drink their second favourite beverage (the first being vodka, of course) and watch their favourite movies.
As I said, I don’t know much about political games world leaders play, but my friend Abie does. Abie used to be in the merchant navy and has sailed the seven seas to dark and deceptive corners of the globe. He has seen sights and heard secrets that would leave a normal person shaken and stirred… and gulping down a few vodka martinis. Abie told me that sanctions did not stop with consumer goods. Freezing Russian assets and accounts, blocking credit cards, visa and travel bans, stopping imports and exports… The list was too long to list. And Abie was too busy to go through the entire list with me. (In fact, Abie’s daily schedule was so hectic that it would make a normal person gulp down a few vodka martinis.)
But Abie promised to send a few whatsapp forwards that would enlighten me. I must mention that his list of global online friends included all kinds of political protestors and tactical theorists. And sure enough, later that day my phone pinged insistently with whatsapp forwards. One or two were from Abie, as expected. But a whole unsanctioned bunch were from other friends. After all, this is the first important war after the invention of social media.
When I read Abie’s forward, I found out that Russia had been removed from Swift. Serves them right, I thought. Now all mention of Russia will be deleted from Jonathan Swift’s prose and poems? But that was not it… Perhaps I was thinking of the wrong Swift. Who reads Jonathan anymore anyway? Surely Russia will be expunged from the lyrics of that brilliant songwriter, Taylor Swift. But I was still chasing the wrong Swift.
Apparently Russian banks had been removed from SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). Poor Russian banks. Now they will not be able to use the SWIFT network that connects global financial institutions and coordinates money transfers worldwide. So no international buying and selling for you, Russia! This is a really bad thing for Russia, right?
Not necessarily, said the writeup. Putin will now get to use Russia’s own SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages), the Russian equivalent of SWIFT. And his close friends, the Chinese, will probably integrate their system, CIPS (Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System), with Russia’s network. The author claimed that an alternate global financial system that competed against SWIFT would be an enormous blow to the US and EU economies. And he also says that other nations like India, Saudi Arabia and African nations will abandon SWIFT and join the Russian network. Now this made me think. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, African nations… don’t these nations fall under dictatorships or kingdoms? So why would India be part of this group? Does the author know something that we don’t about India’s future plans?
The Russia Ukraine war had galvanized a lot of my friends on social media. This was evident from the increase in whatsapp forwards I received each day. Though I did not read all of them, a few ‘conspiracy theories’ interested me because it featured that big bad villain, the USA.
America coaxed Ukraine to keep provoking Russia till it attacked.
The USA has been funding and controlling dangerous bio-research labs in Ukraine.
The U.S. has been training birds in Ukraine to spread deadly diseases among Russian citizens. Democrat Presidents like Clinton are supporting Ukraine because it is their ‘little crime playground’ where their criminal secrets are hidden.
Ukraine has been used by rich, politically connected Americans to coordinate criminal activities and they started this war to cover their tracks…
Well, after reading all these theories, I have to disagree with the lyrics of that 1970’s Motown hit, ‘War, What Is It Good For?’. According to this song, the answer is,
‘Absolutely Nothing…’
But this is no longer true, is it? Apparently War is good for alternate economies and conspiracy theories. And posting unsanctioned stuff on social media.
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