Fake#1. US to reconnect Russian banks to the SWIFT system, UN officials reported
Russia announces withdrawal from the grain deal with Ukraine. And as a condition, Russia demands reconnection to SWIFT for some banks turned off last year due to anti-war sanctions.
Since then, the state-run news agency BelTA and many Russian propaganda outlets have reported that the United States has agreed to Russia's demands for SWIFT.
UN officials reported that the United States decided to reconnect Russian banks to the SWIFT system, RIA Novosti reported.
Sanctions against Russia, including the shutdown of the SWIFT system, turned out to be a blow to the status of the dollar. More and more countries are losing confidence regarding the US dollar and are switching to national currency settlements.
Therefore, the United States decided to take such a step, in which the UN was involved. Thus, Russian banks plan to reconnect to the international payment system in order to fulfill the grain deal, Stéphane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, said,” Belta claims.
RIA Novosti refers to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, but Dujarric did not say this.
On April 12, at the daily press briefing, he was asked about the grain deal. And here is what he literally answered, why it was impossible to export Russian grain.
“Obviously, the fact that a number of Russian financial institutions are not, if not all of them, I’m not sure, are not in the SWIFT system makes things more complicated. And we are in discussions with the people who are responsible for SWIFT and the Europeans and others on that,” Spokesman said.
In answering the question about progress on discussing this for nine months Spokesman said: “I think there’s some issues in which we have power. Very few, but this is not one of them. Secretary-General has no authority over SWIFT. He has no authority over Member States that impose unilateral sanctions. He has no authority over insurance companies, shipping companies. He can’t tell them what to do. We’re trying to herd a whole group of people. Some of them are part of trade associations. Some of them are in private sectors, Governments, European Union, and others to make sure that this MoU is implemented.”
And it's all. In his response, there was nothing about the US, nor about the fact that SWIFT would be connected. On the contrary, he even stated that the UN does not influence resolving this issue.
A curious fact is that in a few days, there was news that the US did allow one of its banks to make payments for the export of agricultural products from Russia. But only for one transaction and it doesn't mean a Russia reconnection Russia to SWIFT.
Russian outlets presented it as a major diplomatic success for Moscow. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not hide his disappointment, he criticized this decision and called it a "one-time alternative" and "frivolous approach".
Moreover, it became known from the leaked Pentagon documents that the United States considers the position of the UN Secretary-General on the grain deal too soft as if he is ready to meet the interests of Russia.
It also contradicts RIA Novosti's assertion that the US is ready to make concessions to Russia.