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Russia negotiating with several states to bypass Western payment systems, says diplomat

Moscow "is about to agree" with some states on the issue, Maria Zakharova said

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Russia is in talks with a number of states on starting settlements in national currencies, without the use of Western payment systems, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced at Thursday’s briefing, when asked how the economies of Russia and Iran will interact when several Iranian banks are disconnected from the SWIFT payment system, she said.

"Unfortunately, the blackmailing and threats we heard from the US and the Western community about the possible disconnection from payment systems and getting locked out of accounts, posed a question to the world on how reliable Western payment systems, western currencies, and settlements through western payment networks are. [Therefore] Russia is currently in talks and is about to agree with a number of states about starting payments and operations in national currencies."

SWIFT is the international interbank system of information transmission and payments. Over 11,000 financial institutions of more than 200 countries of the world are connected to it.

The possibility of disconnecting of Russia from SWIFT has been discussed since 2014, when the first anti-Russian sanctions related to the situation in Ukraine were introduced.

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Maria Zakharova

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