Russia should be banned from VISA and Mastercard system, Ukraine’s former minister of finance says
Russia should be banned from the VISA system as part of sanctions against Moscow, Ukraine’s former minister of finance has said.
Natalie Jaresko told Sky News she expected Russia to invade Ukraine.
“I listened over the last decade to everything President Putin has said and frankly speaking he made it very clear that he has no regard for international law, no regard for the Helsinki principles, no regard for humankind, and that he has full disdain for the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian state, our culture and our traditions,” she said.
“He doesn’t believe we exist, and he said it this week plainly.”
She said sanctions on Russia had not gone far enough.
“No, if they had gone far enough then we would not be awaiting worse bombing tonight. The way I look at sanctions is they need to be massive, urgent, they need to try and change the calculus of the people around President Putin.”
Ms Jaresko said Russia needed to be banned from the SWIFT banking system, as well as kick Russia out of the investment indices and the VISA and Mastercard systems.
She added: “We need to sanction the central bank of Russia, that is the Achilles heel of the financial system.”
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