When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Western sanctions response was arguably more severe than anything that Russian policymakers had expected. The EU and the US moved to deny Russia access to the Swift payments network, which manages international transfers between banking institutions worldwide. This was a potential sanction that had long been mooted as part of any potential sanctions response, but it was always considered a very last resort sanction. When push came to shove, the West did eventually remove Russian access to Swift. However, it maintained Swift access for several Russian counterparts – notably…

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