Westerners are hardening their response. The European Union, meeting at a summit in Brussels, approved sanctions on Thursday, February 24 in the evening “massive” against Russia, after its invasion of Ukraine, without however going so far as to exclude the country from the Swift international banking system.
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“Russian leaders will face unprecedented isolation”, promised the President of the European Commission, the German Ursula von der Leyen. This is the sanctions package “toughest ever implemented” by the EU, also affirmed the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
The Twenty-Seven want to punish the regime of President Vladimir Putin with financial sanctions. These include drastically limiting Russia’s access to European capital markets, hampering Moscow’s ability to refinance its debt there.
The EU will also reduce Russia’s access to “crucial technologies”, by depriving it of electronic components and software, so as to “seriously penalize all parts of the Russian economy”after Ursula von der Leyen.
But neither the EU nor the United States have excluded Russia from the Swift interbank network, a vital cog in global finance. But it’s “an option” envisioned by US President Joe Biden.
In Washington, Joe Biden has also defended an arsenal of sanctions developed by the United States aimed at dealing a terrible blow to finance as well as to the Russian economy. These economic and financial reprisals “surpass anything that has ever been done”supported the American president during a highly anticipated televised address from the White House.
For its part, France will accelerate the deployment within the framework of NATO of soldiers in Romania, a country bordering Ukraine, announced President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the exceptional summit of the EU. He also found it useful to “leave the way open” dialogue with Moscow to obtain a halt to its offensive.