Western powers to disconnect Russian banks from SWIFT - statement

The leaders “condemn Putin’s war of choice and attacks on the sovereign nation and people of Ukraine,” the joint statement reads.

“We stand with the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people in their heroic efforts to resist Russia’s invasion. Russia’s war represents an assault on fundamental international rules and norms that have prevailed since the Second World War, which we are committed to defending. We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin,” the leaders say.

The statement recalls that over the past week, the respective states, along with other allies and partners around the world, imposed “severe measures on key Russian institutions and banks, and on the architects of this war, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

“As Russian forces unleash their assault on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, we are resolved to continue imposing costs on Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international financial system and our economies. We will implement these measures within the coming days,” the statement says.

It was noted that the sanctions will include removing selected Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system.

This will ensure that these banks “are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.”

Also, the leaders have committed to imposing restrictive measures that “will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions.”

The people and entities “who facilitate the war in Ukraine and the harmful activities of the Russian government” will be limited in buying citizenship — so-called golden passports — which “let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems.”

In the coming week, a transatlantic task force will be launched that will ensure the effective implementation of sanctions by identifying and freezing the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies within the relevant jurisdictions.

As a part of this effort, the leaders are committed to employing sanctions and other financial and enforcement measures on additional Russian officials and elites close to the Russian government, as well as their families, and their enablers to identify and freeze the assets they hold in the respective jurisdictions.

“We will also engage other governments and work to detect and disrupt the movement of ill-gotten gains, and to deny these individuals the ability to hide their assets in jurisdictions across the world,” the statement reads.

Coordination against disinformation and other forms of hybrid warfare will also be stepped up.

It is stressed that the leaders are “prepared to take further measures to hold Russia to account for its attack on Ukraine.”

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