Putin’s Alarming Response to SWIFT Limitations and Freezing of Central Bank Assets
World leaders had a busy weekend discussing and implementing further sanctions on Russia as conflict in Ukraine continued. On Saturday, the West announced that some Russian financial institutions would be cut off from SWIFT, the global messaging platform that allows banks to communicate and send funds securely to one another. In addition, the EU and US decided to freeze the Central Bank of Russia’s (CBR) assets. Currently, the CBR has foreign reserves worth around $630 billion, with the majority of it rendered inaccessible for open market transactions that would see the Ruble recover some of its recent losses.
