MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. Russia is preparing for additional sanctions, and serious work has been initiated into dealing with the country’s potential disconnection from international payment systems, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said at parliamentary hearings in the State Duma.
"Of course, we need to prepare for additional restrictive measures, we usually call sanctions. It is clear that it is impossible to prepare for everything, but already in the economic and financial departments, serious work has been launched related to the transfer of settlements into national currencies, the introduction of payment systems," he said.
"There can be a lot of "what if" cases [if Western countries introduce restrictive measures], you cannot get ready for all of them. It is clear that we cannot be completely shut down, in the current world, this is impossible <...>. Today, nobody can fully support and develop themselves by their own efforts and means," Pankin added.
On Saturday, the international rating agency Moody’s published a statement in which it admitted the risk of Russia's disconnection from international payment systems.
Earlier, the European Parliament adopted a resolution aimed at Russia calling for sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, the Rosatom nuclear corporation, "Russian oligarchs", as well as disconnecting the country from the SWIFT international payment system in the event of an "invasion of Ukraine."
The topic of a possible disconnection of Russia from SWIFT initially arose back in 2014 after the first anti-Russian sanctions.