[HN Gopher] Germany softens stance on curbing Russian access to ...
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Germany softens stance on curbing Russian access to SWIFT
Author : dmarchuk
Score : 49 points
Date : 2022-02-26 19:16 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
| mngnt wrote:
| > joining other Western powers in support of harsher sanctions
|
| They "soften" in their "don't cut Rusia from SWIFT" stance.
|
| In other words, Germany is coming closer to harder sanctions.
| sschueller wrote:
| Isn't this worse for the US than for Germany? Isn't it in the
| interest of the USD to keep swift as the primary method for
| moving money and not let any other system rise?
| ineedasername wrote:
| It only hurts the US if this action leads to the rise of an
| alternative.
|
| But SWIFT is pretty deeply entrenched in the industry and
| having other standards compete is a recipe for chaos.
| Russia's system that they been building since similar threats
| in 2014 may soften the blow for them, and allow them to
| continue to function albeit with a lot more difficulty.
|
| BUT: this entire situation with the Ukraine is made
| possible-- in part-- because Europe has ceded much influence
| and control over their energy sector to Russian supplies.
| Europe is restricted in what they can sanction lest Russia
| retaliate against their energy supply.
|
| Because of this, I very much doubt that many European
| countries would further tie themselves to Russia with a new
| Russian-backrd protocol. If anything I think this situation
| will Europe step back a bit from that relationship. They'd be
| wise to build out more extensive energy supply infrastructure
| from Canada and/or the US so that they are diversified
| against risk of geopolitical conflict. And if course at the
| same time significantly ramp up home-grown renewable
| resources to that dependence on any other major foreign
| powers is kept to a minimum.
| kettleballroll wrote:
| As far as I understood, the first order effect is that
| excluding Russia from swift disables the usual way for
| Germany to pay for Russian gas and oil, which means that
| unless they physically move a truckload of euros to Moscow
| (and get Moscow to agree to that) they are cutting themselves
| off from one of their major energy supplier. Plus Russia is a
| big trade partner, but any outstanding bills will then likely
| go unpaid, and most likely a lot of contracts will be voided.
| [deleted]
| detaro wrote:
| I don't think SWIFT is bound to USD, since it's mostly
| messaging?
| firstSpeaker wrote:
| Cutting Russia from SWIFT is not like cutting Iran off. Russia is
| way richer with far more reach and cutting more and more
| countries off of the network will give more and chance for one of
| the alternatives to grow.
| sydthrowaway wrote:
| This.
|
| This is another huge mistake from the Western liberal order
| that keeps fumbling the ball.
|
| Relying on Russian gas for energy security was the first.
|
| What are the root causes if these disastrous decisions? How did
| the East get smarter, more Machiavellian than us? They were in
| the trash can 20 years ago. Perhaps getting fat and rich rather
| than fighting for every penny.. we are missing street smarts,
| and end up with Justin Trudeau
| Gatsky wrote:
| What would you do now instead?
| [deleted]
| happytoexplain wrote:
| Many people (most?) consider "Machiavellian" to be an insult
| - essentially synonymous to "smart but immoral". Part of the
| West's ideology, for better or worse, is the idealistic
| belief that smartness and simple prudence/shrewdness can be
| separated from the negative aspects of Machiavellianism.
| robbedpeter wrote:
| There's also recognition of the valid circumstance in which
| you're presented with choosing a lesser evil. If all
| choices are bad, choose the least bad, and those contexts
| change radically over different time frames.
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