MOSCOW, Jan 29 The European Union will only make things worse for itself if it tries to disconnect Russia from the payment system SWIFT, said Friedrich Merz, chairman of the German opposition Christian Democratic Union party, in an interview with Die Welt. His words have been translated on the Inotv portal.
Disabling Moscow from SWIFT threatens to collapse the entire system and a possible transition to a Chinese counterpart, the politician believes. Another mistake of Europe in relations with Russia, according to Merz, is trying to sign an association agreement with Ukraine, which violates trade agreements between Moscow and Kiev. “We in the EU must respect the fact that countries that, for example, conclude association or free trade agreements with the European Union, may at the same time have obligations to other economic zones,” explained the position of the chairman of the German party.< img src="/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/39b3266cf1e089dcd0a7c41425b24ff5.jpg" />In Germany, they assessed the chances of finding a replacement for Russian gas SWIFT — an international interbank system for transmitting information and making payments, to which more than 11,000 largest organizations are connected in almost all countries of the world. There are regular reports in the press that Moscow could be cut off as one of the West's tougher sanctions. In response to such risks, Russia created its own Financial Message Transmission System. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has previously stated that no Western official has ever demanded that SWIFT be shut down for Russia. Last week, the German newspaper Handelsblatt, citing government sources, also confirmed that the United States and the European Union ruled out such a step as an option for possible sanctions. After the 2014 coup d'etat, Ukraine began to aggressively pursue a policy of integration with the West. In the wake of these expectations, changes were made to the country's constitution, which fixed the country's course towards the EU and NATO. Meanwhile, politicians in the West have repeatedly made it clear to Kiev that they are not waiting for him there or this will not happen soon. At the same time, Johannes Hahn, who held the post of European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and EU Enlargement, previously stated that it was unrealistic to talk about Ukraine's membership in the European Union in the coming years, Kiev should concentrate on the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU.
Germany said that the West should «build a bridge» for Russia