For two days, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has literally been begging his NATO allies to ban Russia from the SWIFT international banking system.

“We believe Russia should be discontinued from anything that democratic countries allow them to be a part of,” Ambassador Oksana Markarova said during a press event Thursday. “We strongly ask everyone to support the discontinuation of SWIFT, disconnecting Russia from SWIFT.”

Removing Moscow from the international banking system would effectively cut Russia off from top financial networks.

The international program allows banks worldwide to securely and efficiently communicate with one another and it facilitates trillions of dollars worth of cross-border transactions.

But the U.S. and its European Union allies failed to block Russia’s access to SWIFT in its second tranche of sanctions Thursday.

Yesterday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson took the lead in helping to end the brutal conflict by “introducing new sanctions against Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov imminently,” that includes removing Russia from SWIFT, as he called on fellow NATO leaders to join him to “take immediate action against SWIFT to inflict maximum pain on President Putin and his regime.”

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also announced that Italy has also agreed to support banning Russia from SWIFT.

The Latvian Defence Minister explains why European politicians and diplomats are opposing the removal of Putin from SWIFT “because they’re afraid to lose money.”

In America, the feckless Joe Biden, who made it clear yesterday that he was unwilling to get behind the expulsion of Putin from SWIFT has had a change of heart after watching almost every NATO ally, including Germany fall into line behind the UK.

On Thursday, Joe Biden told the media, “It is always an option. But right now, that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take.”

Biden repeated his answer yesterday when asked about why he refuses to support disconnecting Russia from SWIFT. Biden told reporters the sanctions they’ve placed on Russia exceed banning Putin from SWIFT, saying “Let’s have a conversation in another month or so to see if they’re working.”

Do Ukrainians, who are being blasted by Russian troops as we speak, have “another month or so?”

France joined the effort to ban Russia from SWIFT today:

Cyprus also announced support of the EU ban of SWIFT today.

Finally, Bumbling Biden, who is in Delaware while the horrific, bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine unfolds, is doing what he does best—leading from behind, as he finally agreed today to join the other NATO nations to ban Russia from SWIFT.

In a joint statement the US, EU, and Communist Canadian leader Justin Trudeau have also joined the alliance to eject selected Russian banks from SWIFT and to restrict Russia’s central bank.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1497701523119218688?s=20&t=C1SXtag_5PtniXSs2C_XCw

The White House statement says the “US and allies have launched a multilateral Transatlantic task force to identify, hunt down, and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs – their yachts, their mansions, and any other ill-gotten gains.”

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1497713475895836676?s=20&t=C1SXtag_5PtniXSs2C_XCw

Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s first female president, explains:

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1497698533364883459?s=20&t=C1SXtag_5PtniXSs2C_XCw

 

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