Sanctioned Russian banks begin testing national payment system next week

“What sanctions?” is how Russia laughs off Western punitive measures while creating its own alternative system. Much like the attack on Russian oil and gas, the West is shooting itself in the foot here as well. Iran and the sanctions against it in the previous 10 years have also been a prime example of plans backfiring. Iran, a third world economy, has no bottom — and plenty of other needy customers such as China who would be more than welcome to take Persian oil.

 

“The pilot project involves SMP Bank and Rossiya Bank, those for which the story is very critical and important. These are quite large banks,” the head of the Russian National payment system (NPS) Vladimir Komlev said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV.

The move comes as a part of Russia’s ambitious initiative to move away from the Western dominance of its financial markets. Last month the Russian Central Bank said it would have its own international inter-bank payment system, an alternative to the global SWIFT network up and running by May 2015.

Russia’s National System of Payment Cards (NSPC) starts operations in mid-December; eight Russian banks sanctioned by the West will be the first to make use of the new electronic funds transfer service.

MOSCOW, December 8 (Sputnik) – Russia’s National System of Payment Cards (NSPC), which has been created to rival existing international operations such as Visa and Mastercard, will start test operations in mid-December, Russia’s business newspaper “Vedomosti” reported on Monday.

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The Alliance of the Threatened

BERLIN/WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Own report) – The EU and USA have expanded their sanctions against Russia and – in addition to individuals – have now also placed important Russian companies on their lists. Washington has restricted dealings, for example, with Rosneft and the Gazprombank. Brussels has announced the possibility of preventing EU companies from doing business with Russian companies and is planning to list them by the end of July. German business circles are protesting. They have already suffered billions in losses. Experts are warning that, with its sanctions against Russia, the West may experience, in the economic arena, an overreach similar to that experienced by the US in the military arena with its war on Iraq. With the power of the West obviously waning, it has already become noticeable that even close allies are defecting. Observers explain this with the Crimea conflict: NATO countries had been unable to retain the Crimea within the reign of its allied Ukrainian government; therefore it seems that an alliance with NATO countries would no longer be a reliable assurance against ones enemies. Defections can be noticed in Asia and Latin America, not least of all because of the recent founding of the BRICS development bank, rivaling the US-dominated World Bank. Russia and China are among the founders of this bank.