Alexandra Vacroux, executive director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard [lol], told NPR/VOA, "It doesn't move the money, but it moves the information about the money."

Iran lost access to SWIFT in 2012 as part of sanctions over its nuclear program, though many of the country's banks were reconnected to the system in 2016. Vacroux told NPR that when Iran was kicked off, "they lost half of their oil export revenues and 30% of their foreign trade."

Several hours later, Germany, which had been the last European Union nation holding out on the sanctions, offered measured support for Russia's disconnection from SWIFT, according to a joint statement from German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and German Economics Minister Robert Habeck.

"We are working flat out on how to limit the collateral damage of a disconnection from #SWIFT, so that it hits the right people," the officials wrote in a statement. "What we need is a targeted and functional restriction of SWIFT."