OREANDA-NEWS Poland and the Baltic states have called on the European Union (EU) to disconnect Russian Gazprombank from SWIFT or "at least" freeze the bank's assets. EUobserver writes about this with reference to the text of joint proposals on sanctions from these countries.

The text refers to the bank's role "in the scheme of the Russian establishment in the appropriation of public money, as well as the Kremlin's use of this bank to promote political interests." The parties stressed that the disconnection of Gazprombank from SWIFT is a priority and is of symbolic importance.

Poland and the Baltic states also proposed to impose sanctions on the import of Russian gas, including in liquefied form. In addition, they called for an embargo on Russian aluminum. The countries also believe that access to the ports of the European Union should be closed for foreign ships carrying cargo for companies registered in Russia.

They began disconnecting large Russian banks from SWIFT in March 2022 against the background of the beginning of a special operation in Ukraine. The first in the list were VTB, banks Rossiya, Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and VEB.RF. As part of the last, tenth package of sanctions imposed on February 25, Alfa-Bank, Tinkoff Bank and Rosbank joined the list.

As a response to Western sanctions, Russia has decided to completely ban the use of the system for transfers within the country. The ban comes into force on October 1, 2023. SWIFT will have to replace exclusively Russian interbank information exchange services.