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**FEBRUARY 25, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
Punishing Putin Swiftly
If not now, when?
SWIFT is the global interbank payments system. It stands for Society for
Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Last year, SWIFT
processed some ten billion transaction messages
for more than 11,000 banks. Barring Russia from SWIFT would crush its
ability to conduct economic transactions in dollars or euros.
Before Putin's incursion into eastern Ukraine turned into a full-blown
blitzkrieg, Biden's strategy was to gradually match sanctions to
Russia's actions, holding in reserve the more severe sanction of
cutting Russia off from the world's banking system.
But now, lesser deterrence has failed utterly. SWIFT might as well stand
for
**So Why Is the Fricking Temporizing?**
The explanation is not Biden's hesitancy, but Europe's. Biden has
done well at pulling a reluctant Europe into a tougher stance; but
several EU nations, most notably Germany and France, have refused so far
to kick Russia out of SWIFT (thought France has not ruled it out).
They fear that this escalation by the West would result in an even more
severe cutoff of energy supplies, as well as prolongation of the general
economic disruption created by Putin's invasion of Ukraine. But
there's also a paradox-the more the West's sanctions pinch, the
more Russia will need to get its oil and gas to world markets and will
be as desperate to sell as the Europeans are to buy.
In the meantime, however, other financial sanctions agreed to by the G7
are doing damage.
Clearstream
and
Euroclear, the European bank clearing networks, have banned transactions
in rubles, and several leading Russian banks have had transactions
frozen. As a result, the Russian bond market has collapsed, and
Russia's main stock market index fell 33 percent yesterday.
Bottom line: Putin's invasion of Ukraine is not quite the cakewalk he
imagined. Putin has severely damaged Russia's economy and his own
standing at home. Nor is it possible to occupy a resistant nation of 41
million people, except at overwhelming cost.
Now is the time to maximize sanctions against Putin, with all deliberate
swiftness.
****
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
**Robert Kuttner's latest book is**
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.
[link removed]
[link removed] Worse
Than a Crime; It's a Blunder
Anatol Lieven on the meaning and consequences of Russia's invasion
of Ukraine and the West's response BY HAROLD MEYERSON & RYAN COOPER
[link removed] Red
Alert in Virginia
Republican
Gov. Glenn Youngkin displays his Trumpist credentials. BY GABRIELLE
GURLEY
[link removed]
Altercation: Social Media and White Supremacist Terrorism
A movement that's both nationalist and global, and largely
uncoordinated BY ERIC ALTERMAN
[link removed]
Putin's War on Ukraine
In this episode of Left Anchor (#225), Prospect managing editor Ryan
Cooper and Alexi the Greek discuss the context of the invasion with
writer David Klion. BY PROSPECT STAFF
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