BruceVC

https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/spfs-russia-s-alternative-to-swift.html/ ( this was written before the Ukraine invasion so you can ignore his warnings about " an invasion " ) and this article is " pro-Russian " and basically supports SPFS SWIFT is by far the most widely used and integrated financial payment system in the world and the alternatives like SPFS is really only used internally within Russia so its not gong to make much difference. The whole point of SWIFT is predominantly the intra-country trade and financial payment benefits Real alternatives to SWIFT would have to used by the majority of banks globally and thats not the reality for SPFS or any other similar system So freezing out Russia from SWIFT would have unprecedented economic consequences for Russia unlike anything the Ruskies have ever experienced but it would also directly harm the economies of any country trading with Russia in any way which has to be considered before this type of financial sanction is implemented So its understandable if Germany is reluctant, I would also be reluctant if I was Germany. I think we need to wait a while before the SWIFT " punishment" is implemented which exactly what is happening One more thing, what makes SWIFT " punishment " more easier to implement is if the US is behind it. Because what will happen is the US creates its own set of sanctions that says " you mustnt trade with country xx " which translates to US companies cannot legally do business with these countries. This in turn creates real choices for companies outside the US who have to decide " do we take the risk of trading with company x in country y and face possible US financial sanctions " which very few global companies would be prepared to do and thats also understandable But this is the big stick approach to making SWIFT freezing really be effective and its a long way off because it takes time. I dont think you need SWIFT banning yet, once the invasion is over the current sanctions should make the point ?

The arrogance of Putin knows no bounds, now he is threatening both Sweden and Finland not to join NATO https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/finland-sweden-brush-off-moscows-warning-joining-nato-83126927

What a strange expectation, many East Europeans have ethnic and cultural ties with Ukrainians ....they dont have the same ties with Syrians. So no its nothing to do with racism

Im watching on Al-Jazeera and I am very impressed with number of East European countries opening their borders to Ukrainian refugees, its great to see that type of solidarity

The Taliban calling for diplomacy Russia has support from its autocratic allies like Belarus and Chechnya which is what you expect And then Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba have " recognized " the separatist states so they would recognize a Ruskie controlled Ukraine. So to answer your question many failed states and failed socialist experiments will support Russia. But its to be expected but they dont matter from a sanction or things like a SWIFT perspective

Dont worry Belarus will also be facing sanctions for enabling the invasion, Im not surprised Kazakhstan said no https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-led-to-sanctions-on-belarus/ar-AAUjliY

So you have been correct in almost all your predictions and especially you have been right in the big ones like " will Putin be foolish enough to invade Ukraine " So what do you think is his goal next once the Ukrainian military is defeated ? Would he implement a puppet government or maybe an open Russian military occupation?

His comments, lies and propaganda has steadily become more irrational and bizarre its hard to not agree he is suffering from a some sort of psychosis. For example the one big fabrication is " we are invading Ukraine to stop the Neo-Nazis " as if Ukraine is like Germany in ww2 when in fact the small numbers of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine I doubt is anymore than the Neo-Nazis in Russia. Sure they exist but they a tiny part of the population? Its unlikely the West will ever align with Iran like that, and that includes the EU, until we see a change of the current hardliner leadership in Iran. The hardliners in Iran are vociferously and constantly anti-Western and have actively been involved in pushing their own Shia fundamentalism and destabilizing the ME. Just one example, Iran is involved in Yemen because they are funding and supporting the Houthis that are fighting the Saudis and their proxies within Yemen. And Iran openly supported, they sent Quds forces, and funded Assad in Syria so they very much involved in the internal conflicts of other countries Welcome to the reality of SM and how some people comment on parts of the Internet. But its been like this for about 6-8 years so you just ignore it and try not to get emotionally effected and you say what you want to say or negative rate a comment ? But I wouldnt allow myself to get disgusted because then you letting a strangers views influence your current emotional state. Just intellectualize it ...its not personal unless you want to express emotion but concerning political and ideological debates on the Internet I would caution against doing that

Nice Wormie, it sounds great

Good to know, I was just checking

But can you set snares and traps to kill animals ? Because if you want to kill an animal how would you do it if you cant use a gun anymore ?

Mamie !!! Stop being a " commie loving subversive " You mustnt support Putin, he is bad. He lied and we dont like people who are warmongers and who lie Besides we both know who the real enemy is....and the war against SJWism is much worse and serious than anti-Western rhetoric

Yes their is no chance of this invasion ever being recognized or forgotten about by most of the world. Exactly like the sanctions over Crimea this will never go away until Russia pulls out of Ukraine and stops trying to recreate its own borders for Ukraine Russia will defeat the Ukrainian army, thats inevitable but the question for me is what next? Will we see a Russian puppet state and some sort of occupation? An occupation will become a nightmare for Russia especially with a hostile population and the increased sanctions

Raithe only you could find something like this

Sarex that is a terrible thing to suggest, I thought you were opposed to how Serbia civilians were targeted? Now you saying its a good idea?

Ukraine has no real prospects of defeating Russia militarily so then guerilla warfare is an option once Russia occupies Ukraine but I was reading how the geography doesn't lead to this and then the culture of the Ukrainians is not the same as the militant groups that fought an insurgency in Iraq against the US in 2003 and onwards Its easier for Ukrainians to leave Ukraine or accept the reality but wait for the sanctions and economic punitive steps to get Putin to reverse what he has done. No point getting killed against a clearly stronger army unless its existential and you have no choice like in the Soviet Afghan war with the Mujahideen But the point is I dont see Ukrainians defeating Russia through normal or asymmetric warfare?

Its a valid concern IMO. Apparently their will be a delay and some are joking after this STALKER 2 will be even more realistic because the Developers will have real hands on experience of war

Yes but I am explaining the process of how you freeze financial institutions, not countries, out of SWIFT And as far as I know the SWIFT " punishment " was only ever used against Iranian banks and its a complicated process. Im not comparing the two situations because they the same

Yes that makes sense, lets be concerned with harsh words from the UN because Putin hasnt said anything harsh

No thats not a reason or concern to cut Russia out of SWIFT. Cyber warfare is normal for Russia and they have their own form of " SWIFT " But to get banks frozen out of SWIFT is complicated because its a private sector institution and you first need sanctions on the banks that would be frozen and then the banks have to be in breach of those sanctions to justify not being able to use SWIFT Thats how they did it with the Iranian banks when they were frozen out of SWIFT But it can be done, its a process. But the concern is not because of fear from Russian hackers

It always is but thats why Hoonding is so funny....its takes skill to be funny like him

I started playing The Forest last night and Im really enjoying it, I am not experienced in survival games but this is great I dont like the Save system where you can only save in some places like your camp but I may look for a Mod to address this ....but then I think " doesnt that defeat the point of the survival game ethos if you can save anywhere and ruin the excitement " ?

The problem with Finland joining is I wonder if it wouldnt provoke Russia again which we want to avoid ?

Yes and Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia dont care either but once again you dont need countries like this to make sanctions be effective . Thats not how the real strength of the global economy works ...you know that

This article made me laugh when it mentions " China repeated calls for talks to resolve the crisis in Ukraine on Thursday while refusing to criticize Russia’s attack, and in a move that could help reduce the impact of Western sanctions against Moscow " Of course China wont criticize Russia, they have less human rights interests than Russia and their intentions around hegemony is much worse than Russia We dont need China to be involved in sanctions and I never thought they ever would