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Feb 26 • 6 tweets • 2 min read

🧵: Everyone following the war in Ukraine seems to be talking about SWIFT — but many Americans are hearing about it for the first time this week.

Keep reading to find out what SWIFT does and why it matters to Russia ⬇️
axios.com/swift-russia-u…

SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, is a secure messaging service that more than 11k banks around the world use to communicate.

"Essentially, the Gmail of global banking," as Bloomberg explained yesterday.
axios.com/swift-russia-u…

Cutting Russian banks' access would isolate the country from the global financial community, and put more economic pressure on the Kremlin.

The U.S. and its European counterparts have so far held back from cutting off SWIFT, but it's not off the table.
axios.com/swift-russia-u…

European countries use SWIFT to pay Russian companies for oil and gas.

Regular folks overseas are also familiar with the system, using it to conduct cross-country money transfers — to pay bills, say or send someone money.
axios.com/swift-russia-u…

Blocking SWIFT in Russia could actually hurt some European countries, particularly Germany and Italy. Without SWIFT it would be harder for these countries to buy much-needed Russian oil and gas.
axios.com/swift-russia-u…

Sanctions experts said the sanctions announced Thursday against big Russian banks are just as effective as cutting off SWIFT — but will do less damage to Europe.

axios.com/swift-russia-u…

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BREAKING: EU and U.S. to expel some Russian banks from SWIFT payments system axios.com/eu-expels-russ…

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HAPPENING NOW: Biden is addressing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and announcing sanctions against Russia.

Follow this thread for updates ⬇️
axios.com/ukraine-russia…

Biden: “This was never about a genuine security concern on their part. It was always about naked aggression — about Putin’s desire for empire, by any means necessary.”