Iran and Russia have connected their communication and interbank transfer systems to help each other increase trade and financial transactions. Both Tehran and Moscow suffer from the Western sanctions
Iran and Russia have linked their communication and interbank transfer systems to help each other boost trade and financial transactions, a senior Iranian official told Iranian media. Both Tehran and Moscow suffer from Western sanctions.
Since the reimposition of US sanctions on Iran in 2018, after Washington pulled out of the 2015 Tehran nuclear deal with world powers, the Islamic Republic has been cut off from the global financial messaging service SWIFT, which is a key access point for international banking.
Similar restrictions have been imposed on some Russian banks since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. “Iranian banks no longer need to use SWIFT,” the deputy governor of Iran’s central bank, Mohsen Karimi, told the Fars news agency. While Russia’s central bank declined to comment on the deal signed on Sunday, Karimi said “about 700 Russian banks and 106 non-Russian banks from 13 different countries will be connected to this system,” without naming the foreign banks.
Since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war, Tehran and Moscow have worked to forge close bilateral ties as both countries try to build new economic and diplomatic partnerships elsewhere.
Because of the US sanctions on Iran due to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, many Iranians are feeling the rampant inflation and unemployment. Inflation has soared to more than 50%, the highest level in decades. Youth unemployment remains high with more than 50% of Iranians pushed below the poverty line, according to reports from Iran’s Statistics Center.