MOSCOW: Experts from EU countries continue to warn the European Commission (EC) of the perils of tightening sanctions against Russia, the...
MOSCOW: Experts from EU countries continue to warn the European Commission (EC) of the perils of tightening sanctions against Russia, the press bureau Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a statement received by TASS.
"According to information received by the SVR, European experts are persistently trying to convince the European Commission of the harmfulness for the European Union itself of further tightening restrictive measures against the Russian economy," the statement says.
In particular, the EU experts accused the EU bureaucrats of having grossly miscalculated by deciding to disconnect the majority of Russian banks from SWIFT, the international interbank system for transmitting financial information.
"Russian banks have established other patterns of cooperation with foreign partners," the statement says.
"In the meantime, the restrictions imposed by Brussels have led to a decline in the confidence of the countries of the Global South in SWIFT. Now it has become obvious to all developing countries that the West is using SWIFT as an instrument of political pressure," the SVR adds.
The SVR noted that the EU restrictions have resulted in the rapid development of similar payment systems in China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia, with the possibility of foreign partners joining them. The press bureau added that in particular, the international settlement platform mBridge, promoted by China, poses a serious competition to SWIFT.
"European financiers are convinced that the negative consequences for the EU and the transatlantic community as a whole could have been avoided if the European Commission had been interested in the opinion of experts on the likely negative effect of the steps it is preparing. However, even now, the experts' arguments are unlikely to be heard. European officials have long been out of touch with reality and, in their Russophobic fervor, they are vigorously sawing off the branch they are sitting on," the SVR stressed.
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