The U.S. will block five of the biggest Russian banks and freeze all assets they hold in America, worth over $1 trillion, President Joe Biden said in a press conference Thursday.
U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson imposed similar sanctions earlier Thursday, freezing the assets of all major Russian banks and cutting them off from the U.K.’s financial markets, reported the Associated Press. The prime minister also seeks to bar Russian companies and the Russian government from raising money on U.K. markets, a measure Biden echoed in his press conference.
ordered his troops into Ukraine – an escalation on weaker sanctions imposed earlier this week.
Biden said that despite multiple reports indicating a probable ejection of Russia from international payment system Swift, there are no plans to go down that path currently. The U.S. leader’s remarks contrast Johnson’s view as he pushes “very hard” for Russia to be removed from the Swift payment system, according to a Thursday report by the Financial Times.
Bloomberg.
The Wall Street Journal reported.
In a geopolitical event where world leaders seek more influence and power, the citizens usually bear the costs. In today’s digitized and financialized world, monetary issues become more apparent as both attackers and those being attacked first resort to the financial system – either to restrict or seek asylum.
Bitcoin is a life raft to all of those under monetary restrictions worldwide, irrespective of the position they are in according to global geopolitics. The decentralized payment system enables anyone to maintain their ability to transact monetary value regionally or internationally, being immune to the policy tide affecting the traditional systems.
For law-abiding citizens who woke up today in a state of war, Bitcoin assures them their right to send and receive money, irrespective of their central bank’s cash withdrawal limits or their leader’s unpopular political stances.