American Sanctions Against Russia Are In Place (except) No One Cares
Sidestepping The American Money System (And) Replacing It With The Gold-Backed Ruble
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When the United States sanctioned Russia in February. It was done with bluster and fanfare as if it was the spring of 1914 and the western media was beside itself with self-congratulations. (Giddy) as if the American and NATO crimes in Iraq were suddenly eviscerated.
It is important to never lose sight of the fact, that the United States has no potential to stop Russia with conventional military force. Instead, they imposed a sanctions regime on Russian assets, cut Russia off from SWIFT, and seized money from various banks throughout Europe.
Most of the money the United States seized was settlement payments from Russian gas contracts. This was money that was simply sitting in (suspense) within various bank accounts waiting to be settled at Gazprombank.
The obvious question then becomes, if you are a Russian gas customer in Germany how do you pay? The Russians made it easy and straightforward. If you want to pay for gas in euros you can simply open a commercial account at Gazprombank. They will receive euros outside of SWIFT on SPFS.
The SPFS is the Russian equivalent of the SWIFT financial transfer system. In March 2018, over 400 institutions (mostly banks) were part of the network. SPFS was only started in 2014. But by the end of 2020, there were 23 foreign countries connected to the SPFS. From Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Switzerland.
In addition to the SPFS being implemented with incredible speed — it must be made clear that these settlements are NOT dollar-denominated. These payments are outside the US money system altogether.
If you think this is bad, it gets much worse for US foreign and monetary policy.
Additionally, President Putin announced the new settlements system that the Ruble would have a quasi-gold — peg. Of course, knowing India’s love for all things gold. India said, “it was ready to bypass the dollar altogether — for trade with Russia.” This prompted the US to invite representatives of the Indian…
