Major Sanctions Escalation? Informed Sources Say Russian Bank Disconnected From SWIFT

• Although, Russia and China have already implemented their SWIFT alternatives, it is not known how many countries are on their platforms. Kicking Russia out of SWIFT is an act of war.
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• Major Sanctions Escalation? Informed Sources Say Russian Bank Disconnected From SWIFT
  by Paul Goncharoff, http://russia-insider.com/en
  Rumors are swirling in Moscow that a Russian bank has been removed from SWIFT
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  What is the foreign policy game plan ranged against Russia? It looks like the first serious baby-steps to an existential sanctioned escalation may have just been quietly taken. It may very well be that the first Russian bank was disconnected from SWIFT. While I have not heard any confirmation, the word on the Moscow financial grapevine persists.
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  The Russian “Tempbank” (http://www.tempbank.ru/eng/) whose management has been individually sanctioned by the US for ongoing trade with Syria and Iran was disconnected from SWIFT according to apparently “informed sources”. It seems after the sanctions were removed from Iran a while ago Tempbank went ahead and legally opened correspondent accounts with the Iranian Central Bank and a number of large banks of that country. It has further been rumored that the Tempbank chairperson, Mr. Mikhail Gagloyev received a letter from the “human rights” organization “Associations against the Nuclear Program of Iran” (UANI). This is an interesting organization in its own right. In the letter, UANI warned the Russian bank against cooperating with Iranian or Syrian companies. Meanwhile, the talk in the financial street was that the management of Tempbank was targeted for personal sanctions because of their cooperation with Iranian and Syrian businesses. If these reports are correct, then it follows that with the right amount of influence from the right sources, any Russian bank can be disconnected from SWIFT without much legal recourse or chitchat. This does not look to be a de-escalation of tensions. Then what other domino’s might follow, and to whose real advantage?
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