The West's Plan To Drop Russia From SWIFT Hilariously Backfires

[DeSwiss]

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Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/12/2015 16:29 -0400

Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog

If Vladimir Putin is remotely capable of laughter (the jury is out on that one…) then he’s probably doing so right now. Russia is once again Arch-Enemy of the United States. It’s like living through a really bad James Bond movie, complete with cartoonish villains. And for the last several months, the US government has been doing everything it can to torpedo the Russian economy, as well as Vladimir Putin’s standing within his own country.

The economic nuclear option is to kick Russia out of the international banking system. And the US government has been vociferously pushing for this. Specifically, the US government wants to kick Russia out of SWIFT, short for the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications.

That’s a mouthful. But SWIFT is an important component in the global banking system because it lays the foundation for banks to communicate and transfer funds with one another. It’s a network protocol of sorts. Whenever a bank in Pakistan does business with a bank in Portugal, the funds will clear through the SWIFT network. According to the SWIFT itself, they link over 9,000 financial institutions worldwide in over 200 countries, which transact 15 million times per day.

Bottom line, being part of SWIFT is critical to conducting business with the rest of the world. And if Russia gets kicked out of SWIFT, it would be a disaster. Now, SWIFT is technically organized as a ‘Cooperative Society’ and governed by a board of directors. There are 25 available board seats, and each seat is allocated for a three-year term to a specific country. The United States, Belgium, France, Germany, UK, and Switzerland each hold two seats. A handful of other countries hold just one seat. And of course, most countries don’t hold any seats at all.

Here’s what’s utterly hilarious— On Monday afternoon, not only did SWIFT NOT kick Russia out… but they announced that they were actually giving a BOARD SEAT to Russia. This is basically the exact opposite of what the US government was pushing for.

Awkward…

More

- They want Syria, and they'll do anything to get it. Any-stupid-thing.

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[BainsBane]

1. So you're totally down with money laundering?

Or should there be special exemptions for Russia in that regard?

You do realize that Putin and his klepto circle don't keep their money in Russian banks. They don't see the Russian banking system as safe enough for their funds, so they've got it stashed in Western bank accounts, Swiss bank accounts, banking enclaves--you know, where Mitt and the American and European tax traitors stash theirs, HCBC and similar venerable institutions.

It's all so fucking hilarious, all that money outside of the reach of national taxation. Power to the .000000001 percent!

[Fumesucker]

2. There are all kinds of "special exemptions"

For instance Saudi Arabia gets special exemptions for funding violent jihadist groups around the world and yet no one in the US government even seems to notice, let alone do anything about it.