Russia Creates Alternative To SWIFT Banking Payment System – OpEd
By MINA
The grand order of things could be undergoing some major overhauls.
To put it more bluntly, a war to reset the global financial order is about to be unleashed.
Preparations inside Russia are being made in case the ultimate banking sanctions are placed on them, cutting off commerce inside the all-encompassing Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecomm SWIFT system – which runs credit, debt, and banking card transactions across a real time global network.
As it would be doled out by the banking elites, the price for misbehavior at the Kremlin could be ostracization from this global commerce vehicle.
But that isn’t the end of the story… Putin is readying his people to divorce from the international banking system altogether, and start over with a nationalistic platform, backed by thousands of tons of gold, and growing alliances with Europe, China and the BRICS nations, the Middle East and several emerging powers.
A major attempt to bring Russia under heel could result in the greatest schism the global system of finance has ever seen. Then what?
Via Russia Insider:
Russia has successfully developed and implemented an alternative should it be excluded from international banking systems, according to a recent report.
As far as western sanctions go, by far Russia’s largest vulnerability is in its banking sector, which for better or for worse is tied to the hip with international banking.
If Russia wishes to maintain the status quo, there’s not much that can be done about this dependency. But shortly after sanctions were announced in 2014, Moscow set out to prepare for the worst-case scenario: being cut off from the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system.
In layman’s terms, SWIFT allows for fast and (allegedly) secure international financial transfers. In fifty years when you are able to use your Bank of America debit card on the Moon (for a low fee of 2,000 moon rubles), it will be because of SWIFT or a system similar to it.
There are two issues surrounding SWIFT “cut-off” for Russia: 1. Is it likely to happen? and 2. Is Russia prepared for it?
…cutting Russia from SWIFT would be a disaster.
According to Nowotny:
Such a move “we would see as very problematic because it could perhaps undermine confidence in this system,” the governor of Austria’s central bank told reporters… Of course, this hasn’t stopped Europe and Washington from threatening to pull the SWIFT plug.
While it isn’t clear if this is going to happen, threats have been made since the beginning of the issues with Crimea and Ukraine.
And as a result, Putin has overseen the creation of a survival plan from which it could grow stronger. As RT reports:
“There were threats that we can be disconnected from SWIFT. We have finished working on our own payment system, and if something happens, all operations in SWIFT format will work inside the country. We have created an alternative,” Nabiullina said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
She also added that 90 percent of ATMs in Russia are ready to accept the Mir payment system, a domestic version of Visa and MasterCard.
Izvestia daily reported that as of January 2016, 330 Russian banks had been connected to the SWIFT alternative, the system for transfer of financial messages (SPFS).
[…]
The central bank’s website says the system was established “as an alternative channel for interbank cooperation with the aim of ensuring the guaranteed and uninterrupted provision of services for the transmission of electronic messages on financial transactions.”
Will there be economic wars, or outright World War III? Nobody knows for sure, but things could get very tense very quickly. Already, loose allegations are flying at an unprecedented rate. Somebody wants to egg this thing on.
Russia under Putin has seen a significant challenge to a world order that has, for some time, been ultimately controlled by the central banking elite.
The Rothschild presence in Russia has been challenged; Soros-front NGOs have been kicked out, and it seems that only all out war will ever settle these power plays for the dominance or death of the U.S. petrodollar, which is ultimately controlled by the same few hands that steer and control the central banks of nearly all the world’s nations. Only by stealth and monotony have these activities remained in the shadows.
Indeed, the only countries left on the map which have not yielded to yoke of the central bank are the countries that are most at threat of being drawn into war:
–Syria
– Iran
– North Korea
– Cuba
With that list so close to complete, a reversal could be a real blow to global order, and to maintaining orderly deposits.
If Russia moves to drop their central bank, or if they are locked out of the global SWIFT system, it will mean a thudding silence, an unprecedented reversal in the concentration of power.
Russia has prepared to create its own SWIFT-style system as a back up system, that while it is not yet up and running, could one day rival the primary system, and which could provide a meaningful alternative for dissenters and tax evaders alike.
But be aware that behind the scenes, even with this massive and explosive changes in the works, those who control the finances are well aware of the shifts that are taking place, and are in position to reassert their leverage over humanity through new systems, and new centers of power.
Curiously, it cannot be denied that Russia has been a player in the international framework that has been erected. They have been equal partners in covert research and experimentation, and for all the animosity with the U.S., it has also played a willing dance partner for much of what has been going on during the past century.
Vladimir Putin has delicately and masterfully navigated these boundaries, yet he too is woven into the larger fabric. Like George H.W. Bush and the CIA, Putin is a product of the KGB, and remains permanently tied to it.
A monetary power this total does not lose power overnight – and they are not above jumping ship. Only a truly decentralized, private currencies based on mutually beneficial terms for individuals and communities could dissipate that power, and that will not come as easily.
Is the tide turning?
Interesting. Very interesting. Russia planned to create an alternative SWIFT system together with China for quite a while. Mostly to save trade with Iran – especially in the case of China who gets much of its oil from Iran. Good to know that Russia has been working on setting up such a vastly complex system that will take great expertise and also experience until it works. Politically, a decentralized system based on free national currencies would be a way better way to go. Hegemonies are not beneficial – they are despotic and tyrannical. Which garnered the US much hatred in hatred in the world. Whether the world can afford to undermine the petrodollar for good is another matter. It would mean the bankruptcy of the USA and with it total global financial meltdown. That would be an event of a magnitude way larger than any world war and the world might in fact not recover from it anymore. The problem is that the US as well as Russia and China are tethered to world trade – i.e. trade with the USA and vice versa. If the economy collapses due to the unraveling of he petrodollar, the economies of Russia and China will collapse with it. Switching to such a system is therefore a long and assiduous task. Conversely, it will be an alternative and ousting Russia from SWIFT might in fact also oust the US from much of world trade. In other words: a financial cold war.
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