Others 26 Russian oligarchs, including the leaders of the country’s main energy companies, were included in the list of people, who become like this 680 in total, hit by EU sanctions. For them, the freezing of assets and the ban on entering or passing through the territory of EU countries are triggered. The provision was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The US has ordered the expulsion of 12 diplomats from the Moscow mission to the United Nations. The Russian ambassador to the UN said so, Vassily Nebenzia. Speaking to reporters, she reported that they have been declared “non-grateful” people and that they must leave the United States by 7 March. Nebenzia stressed that this is a violation of the agreements by the host country of an international organization.
In the meantime, we expect to understand which banks will be excluded from the Swift network, the network through which banks of 200 countries reporting money transfers. In itself, the exclusion does not entail the blocking of the bank’s operations, which can in any case report the transaction through more traditional means, unless, of course, other measures are taken to prohibit transactions with Russian counterparties. Moscow can count on a National “mini swift” and / or lean on the Chinese one, of even more modest dimensions. However the exclusion is bound to complicate transactions: Swift’s value lies in its extension and speed.
At the moment the payments for the “energy” item would seem to be excluded from the block. For example, the banks affected by Great Britain do not include Sberbank, the largest publicly controlled institution in the country that manages most of the payments for gas. The complete ouster from Swift could be considered a hostile act, complicating negotiations with Moscow. It appears that the EU and the US will select some specific institutes. Large European banks such as Ing, Rabobank, Credit Suisse and Societe Generale however, they stopped funding for Russian commodity trading operations. Among the measures there is also the freezing of the assets of the Russian central bank deposited in the G7 countries and the prohibition of any transactions with the Russian central institution. Today the US bank Citigroup announced that it has an exposure to Russia of 10 billion dollars. According to reports from the Bank for International Settlements, the total exposure of the US banking system is 15 billion. The Italian and French ones are higher, both at 25 billion. In relative values, the Austrian one is very high: 17 billion.
Moscow for its part has announced the stop of all foreign currency transfers out of the country. Initially it was feared that the measure could also entail the stop of the payment of interest on the Russian debt denominated in foreign currency by configuring hence the default. The Kremlin then specified that the stop only concerns new issues. According to some experts, the text of the countermeasures is rather ambiguous and leaves more interpretations open The Moscow Exchange will also be closed tomorrow Tuesday 1 March.
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Russian oil at balance prices is tempting. Polish refineries and traders are buying millions of barrels. The sanctions allow it
