GORKI, 27 January. /TASS/. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev is convinced that Russia will not be disconnected from the international banking system SWIFT, he said in an interview with Russian media, including TASS news agency.
"SWIFT itself is a useful thing, it is a truly international system, and a private system at that. I’ll be straightforward - I don’t really believe that someone would disconnect us from it, because would not bring any advantages to anyone, including this organization itself, arranged for SWIFT, especially since we have a huge number of transactions going through," he said, adding that such measures against Russia would only undermine the credibility of SWIFT.
At the same time, the politician is convinced that Russia’s own system for transferring financial data in the event of Russia's disconnection from SWIFT will work without failures. "We are also prepared in this regard, if something like this happens - it is our own financial data transmission system. It was prepared by the Bank of Russia, it is constantly being tested, and it works. It will not have a single minute of downtime and will perform all the necessary functions within the country," he assured.
Speaking about transfers abroad, Medvedev noted that there are various ways to carry them out. "Yes, they will be more difficult, it is obvious, but it won’t be a catastrophe," Medvedev assured. The same applies to means of payment, he added. "If we talk, for example, about credit cards, then even cards of international systems within the country will still work because they are used for transfers within the country. International transfers - yes, in this case, there will be certain difficulties. We have our own Mir cards, as you know, which can also be used as an analog," the politician said.