“That’s really going to be the test: will Fort Russia hold up if you have assets that can be frozen abroad?” said Daniel Tannebaum, a partner at Oliver Wyman who advises banks on sanctions.
For now, US and European officials are not yet ready to cut all Russian banks off of Swift, the Belgian money transfer system used by more than 11,000 financial institutions worldwide. But a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Thursday that such action was not off the table. In Europe, governments differ on whether or not to detach Russia from Swift.
US officials are not planning any major disruptions to Russian energy exports, which are the mainstay of the country’s economy, for the time being. Europe relies on the products and world leaders do not want to drive up oil and gas prices, even though Germany this week halted the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.
European Union leaders met in Brussels on Thursday evening to discuss the details of the proposed sanctions, which they say would deal a serious blow to the Russian economy.
But documents seen by The New York Times indicated that the bloc, which has close financial ties to Russia and shares borders with Ukraine, was likely to postpone several tough decisions, despite pleas from Poland, the Netherlands and the Baltic states for a hard line. to take. approach.
“Enough of this cheap talk,” said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland, who has already received Ukrainians fleeing the war. He added: “As Europe, as the European Union, we buy a lot of Russian gas, a lot of Russian oil. And President Putin is taking the money from us Europeans. And he turns this into aggression.”
Reporting contributed by Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels, Alan Rappeport from Washington, Motoko Rich from Tokyo and Yan Zhuang from Melbourne, Australia.
