Germany’s finance minister said Friday that his country is open to cutting Russia off from the SWIFT interbank payment system, the crackdown on financial transactions that some have described as the “nuclear option” of sanctions.
“We are open, but you have to know what you’re doing,” Finance Minister Christian Lindner told reporters after a meeting with the European Economic and Financial Affairs Council in Paris.
So far, the U.S. and European Union have held back from blocking Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications or SWIFT, a high-security messaging network that connects thousands of banks around the globe.
If Russia is removed from SWIFT, it would severely hamper its ability to do business with other countries. Shipments of metals, oil, gas and other commodities could stop at least temporarily.
Ukraine has appealed to the U.S. and Europe to boot Russia from SWIFT after Russia invaded Ukraine. Some countries in Europe have resisted, although the idea received support from the United Kingdom.
President Biden said Thursday that keeping Russia out of SWIFT is “always an option,” but “right now, that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take.”
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Germany was reportedly the most strident holdout. Mr. Lindner signaled that was changing.
Some European lawmakers fear that if Russia is cut off from SWIFT, their countries won’t be able to receive shipments of oil, gas and metals from Russia, hampering their economy.
There is debate about the impact of cutting off Russia from SWIFT. Moscow has taken steps to blunt the trauma of losing access to SWIFT, including creating its own payment system after it was hit by Russian sanctions in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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