Russia cultivates alternatives to Western financial firms

THE PRIDESWIFTSWIFT of Russian nationalists was sorely wounded as the Soviet Union crumbled. Russia without communism was not just more like its foe the West, but the country also became beholden to Western financial architecture as it adopted capitalism. Visa and Mastercard established a comfortable bank-card duopoly. And , a Belgian interbank-messaging network, was enlisted for domestic transactions as well as cross-border ones.Yet it was not until the annexation of Crimea in 2014 that these indignities came to be seen as acute vulnerabilities. America and Europe imposed sanctions that were designed to hurt misbehaving Russian banks and President Vladimir Putin’s cronies. Visa and Mastercard briefly blocked cards issued in Crimea or by blacklisted banks. American senators and the European Parliament called for Russia to be cut off from (though it remains connected). The ensuing economic crisis “triggered innovation and what-if thinking”, says Tom Keatinge of the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank. The central bank now publishes regular reports about its strategy for “payment sovereignty”.