SWIFT see SPFS
Russia did it's own version of SWIFT in 2014 SPFS, .... you can see they've been planning this a long time. Kicking them off SWIFT would be painful though, they'd be forced to deal with China to turn Rubles into hard currency, and China would extract a large middle-man-margin for that. There aren't many players in SPFS, with China being the only significant one other than Russia. Russia would be poor. Russians would be very poor. They already get a tiny portion of the wealth, with Putin's friendly oligarchs taking the biggest share of that resource wealth.
Imagine a democratic Russia, with *real* elections with *real* votes being counted, and no more Putin, no more fake elections, no more "98% votes for Putin with 95% turnout" in districts reporting at the last minute, to fix elections he hasn't rigged enough.
Russia could have a normal place in the world, no more of those crappy decaying tower blocks. No more doctors thrown from building by Putin's thugs for daring to expose his mishandling of Covid, no more journalists murdered on the street by Putin's men for reporting about his palaces and yachts, no more politicians arrested and imprisoned for standing up to Putin. They could be free from Putin.
Perhaps they could even join the EU, have freedom of movement in the world, have a proper economy, proper housing, a proper life. Ordinary people having a good life on the back of their oil wealth.
There's a prize here for Russians, they could get rid of dictator Putin and Belarus could eject his side kick Luschenko, and have a better life. Look at the collapse of the military Junta in Argentina. They could join Ukraine in the fight against Putin, and Putin's dictatorship would collapse and they would be free. They could be rid of Putin.
Russians and Ukrainians united together against Putin.
Are you listening St Petersburg troll factory workers? Your life would be better without Putin, so maybe just phone it in? Are you listening Russian soldiers, why die for Putin, when he won't even let you have a free vote?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
