The national flag of the Federal Republic of Germany BERLIN, Jan 30 German Finance Minister Christian Lindner did not respond directly to a question about the possibility of disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT interbank system. Earlier, the German newspaper Handelsblatt, citing government sources, reported that the United States and the European Union are not considering disconnecting Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank settlement system as an option for possible sanctions, but are studying the possibility of introducing targeted sanctions against Russian banks . At the same time, the US administration still does not rule out this possibility, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.Germany withdrew from consideration the issue of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT»It should be clear to the Kremlin that the response to the violation of international law and escalation will be reinforced concrete consequences. I have an expert opinion on SWIFT. But I do not advise publicly discussing individual tools (policies)», — Lindner told Spiegel in response to a question whether Moscow should take into account the possibility of disconnecting from SWIFT in the event of an escalation around Ukraine. He also did not answer the question of whether Nord Stream 2 would be launched in the event of an escalation of the situation around Ukraine. «I am against discussions in the «if, then» style in such conflicts. They allow the counterpart to tactically plan their moves. We are not interested in this,» the minister explained. At the same time, he noted that «Ukraine can count on Germany's solidarity,» stressing that in the long term, in relation to Ukraine and Russia, one should not focus on conflict. «The Russian people, with their great history, have their recognized place in the European home, but their leaders must abide by the rules of the order,» Lindner added. borders of Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied such accusations, saying that it does not threaten anyone and does not intend to attack anyone, and claims of «Russian aggression» are used as an excuse to place more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria around Ukraine, hyped by the West, is aimed at covering Kiev's line of sabotaging the Minsk agreements on Donbass. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, the information hysteria of the USA and NATO on Ukraine is generously framed by lies and fakes. on security, Lavrov said
