Politico.eu.com | Western leaders agree new Russia sanctions, including SWIFT curbs

After Putin launched his war on Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba declared that anyone who doubted Russia should be banned from SWIFT "has to understand that the blood of innocent Ukrainian men, women and children will be on their hands too."

ummm, no. That's not how empathy waxes NATO's boomer bedrooms, boardrooms, and kitchens.

But some countries, including Germany, resisted excluding Russia from the Belgium-based payments network, not least because they use it to pay for Russian gas, on which they are highly dependent.

Even as they announced their move, allies were still working to find ways to limit its impact on energy prices. If removing Russian banks from the financial payments service prevented the country from selling oil and natural gas, prices could jump as European customers scrambled to find alternative sources.

The United States and Europe were coordinating with SWIFT to see if there were ways to identify energy transactions in the system or whether exempting certain banks would limit the potential for disruption, a senior U.S. administration official said on a briefing call for reporters.

waiver alert

"We are going to go institution by institution in terms of those that are removed from the network," the official said. "And we'll pick those very carefully to maximize the impact on Russia and minimize the spillovers profits to Europe and the EU and the global economy."

case.closed.Germany to send Ukraine weapons in historic shift on military aid

From its own stockpile, the German government will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine. The government has also authorized the Netherlands to send Ukraine 400 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and told Estonia it ship over send nine howitzers.

der post-kapitalist Großer Zapfenstreich by the book

Estonia, in particular, had said it wanted to send old howitzers but was prevented from doing so because Germany was withholding its approval. Estonia bought the weapons from Finland, which gave its sign-off, but Germany also has to OK the transfer because it originally sold the howitzers to Finland.

archived Sat Dec 11th, 2021 Baerbock's debut