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As far as I understood, the first order effect is that excluding Russia from swift disables the usual way for Germany to pay for Russian gas and oil, which mean
by kettleballroll 5y ago
As far as I understood, the first order effect is that excluding Russia from swift disables the usual way for Germany to pay for Russian gas and oil, which means that unless they physically move a truckload of euros to Moscow (and get Moscow to agree to that) they are cutting themselves off from one of their major energy supplier. Plus Russia is a big trade partner, but any outstanding bills will then likely go unpaid, and most likely a lot of contracts will be voided.