President Biden and U.S. allies just dropped the SWIFT hammer on Putin

| 8:24 pm EST February 26, 2022
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As recently as yesterday morning, there were doubts as to whether major world leaders would be able to come together and agree on removing Russia from the SWIFT banking system. Key nations were holding out, and without them, any move on SWIFT would have been ineffective. But what a difference 36 hours can make.

President Biden has announced today that the United States and the European Union are removing multiple Russian banks from the SWIFT system. This comes after Biden and Ukrainian President Zelensky managed to convince European nations one by one to voice their support for such a move.

The specific Russian banks removed from SWIFT today were chosen to inflict maximum financial pain on the Russian oligarchs in particular. If they find themselves sufficiently financially crippled, they may decide that Putin’s antics have become too expensive. Collectively, the Russian oligarchs may be able to oust Putin behind the scenes, if they can’t rein him in.