The EU has decided which Russian banks are out of Swift, the international system of banking transactions. Here is the list: Vtb Bank, Bank Rossiya, Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and Veb.rf. Lacks gazprombank, the bank for payments for Russian gas arriving in Europe of which Italy and Germany are the main importers. And it also stayed out Sberbank – the leading Russian banking group – but in the morning, perhaps precisely to prevent the possibility of a further escalation in the sanctions that could end up involving it, Sberbank announced its intention to leave the European market. This was announced by the Russian agency Interfax, quoting a press release from the bank.
Swift excluded Russian banks after lengthy negotiations
The meeting of Coreper - the body of 27 European ambassadors - was long and, on Tuesday afternoon, it was feared that the unanimity on the choice had failed. Poland asked for more drastic measures, but then gave in and the proposal of the EU Commission was approved, already operational today with its publication in the Gazette.
It is said that new and more restrictive sanctions will not arrive at a later date. As a European source explains, the Union needs to leave itself room for maneuver in order to continue to inflict increasingly harmful sanctions. In short, Gazprombank and Sberbank could only have survived for a handful of days. Also because for the G7 and the EU the road to deterrence remains that of civil sanctions.
And the Econfin evaluates the impact of the war on the economy
"The announcement of Western sanctions already has a massive impact, after what is happening there can be no business as usual," explained German Finance Minister Christian Lindner at the meeting of heads of the G7 economy. “It will also be operational in the next few hours ban of Russia Today and Sputnik from all EU media: television, satellite, streaming, apps, Iptv and Isp”, announced Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
Also Taiwan in the meantime it has decided to launch sanctions against Moscow, while Turkey has disengaged: no restrictive measures, with the aim of keeping the dialogue open, Ankara explained. In short, Brussels is trying to squeeze Moscow in its economic grip by supplying Ukraine with weapons in parallel. The center where member countries are delivering even lethal military equipment to the Ukrainian army is in Poland.
An informal Ecofin, scheduled for the afternoon, will analyze the situation, also trying to assess the impact of the crisis on the Union's economy. According to information collected by Ansa, it is excluded that the Stability Pact is further suspended, after the Covid parenthesis. We therefore await the new guidelines for the 2023 Budget laws which Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni will have to present. A slowdown in the pace of debt reduction is to be expected as well as more flexible guidance to deal with the heightened uncertainty about growth caused by the war in Ukraine. With a weight on the recovery of 2022 which, in the worst estimates, reaches 0,7%.
