Europe won’t receive Russian oil and gas, if Russia disconnected from SWIFT

Moscow: The European countries will not be able to receive gas, oil and metals from Russia in case Russia is disconnected from the SWIFT international payment system, Nikolay Zhuravlev, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council, said this week.

The Federation Council is the upper house of the Russian parliament. Earlier, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK government is discussing with the United States the possibility of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT in case of the country’s allegedly possible invasion of Ukraine.

“SWIFT is a settlement system, it is a service. Therefore, if Russia is disconnected from SWIFT, then we will not receive [foreign] currency, but buyers, European countries in the first place, will not receive our goods – oil, gas, metals and other important components of their imports. Do they need it? I am not sure,” Zhuravlev said.

The senator noted that although SWIFT is convenient and fast, it not the only way of money transfers. He also added that the joint decision of the UK and the US is not enough to potentially disconnect Russia from SWIFT and this requires a single decision of all countries participating in this system.

“SWIFT is a European company, an association which involves a lot of countries. To make a decision on disconnection, a single decision of all participating countries is required. The decisions of the United States and the UK are definitely not enough. I’m not sure that other countries, especially those in which the share of trade with Russia is significant will support the shutdown,” Zhuravlev stressed.

In recent years, Brussels regularly raises the topic of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT amid aggravation of relations between Moscow and the West. For the first time, the European Parliament called on disconnecting the Russian Federation from the interbank payment system in 2014 in a resolution adopted after the reunification of Crimea with Russia.