http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.welt.de/finanzen/article126285634/Putin-schlaegt-im-Finanzkrieg-gnadenlos-zurueck.html&act=urlThe financial war between the West and Russia Vladimir Putin strikes back now. The Russian President has announced the formation of a national society for credit cards, which aims to build its own national payment system. "We need a self-sufficient society such essential, and we will do that, "Putin said in Moscow on Thursday.
It is a blow against Visa and MasterCard, which have previously handled a lot of the money transactions in Russia. The two credit card companies had stopped the payment service for customers of Rossiya Bank and other Russian banks in the past week.
Many customers of the institutions could not withdraw more money. Between St. Petersburg and Vladivostok are around 200 million bank cards in use, the money transactions are made to 95 percent over non-Russian service.
Sanctions against customers of Rossiya Bank
The United States had in the Crimean crisis imposed sanctions against the Rossiya Bank, because it is considered as bank close associate of Putin. Russian officials criticized after the sanctions confidence in the two companies and stated that Russian banks are hostages of international cooperation.
The West starts in retaliation for the annexation of the Crimea a kind of financial war against Russia. Instead of aircraft carriers, tanks or trade sanctions money is used as a weapon. Since the U.S. has with the dollar on the world currency and with Visa and MasterCard over the leading money handler, this tool is very efficient. It is sufficient to set up a sanctions list. The companies or individuals concerned are then cut off from all dollar or monetary transaction.
"If a bank customer who is on the sanction list, at a cash machine goes with Visa logo and wants to withdraw cash, appears on the screen 'payout denied'" said Trevor Houser, an analyst at the New York analysis firm Rhodium Group.
Dollar transactions can be sanctioned
The financial transactions in dollars can also be sanctioned. This is for instance be the case when a mining company to South America sold its ores, and for that handles the payment in dollars. Almost all commodities are now denominated in the U.S. currency.
As a rule, U.S. banks are entrusted to handle trades in dollars. But even non-American institutions will need to buy dollars to carry out such a transaction. And also because sanctions can begin.
Gary Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute think tank considers such sanctions for particularly efficient, and calls on Iran as a good example. Above all, the ban against the banking system had allowed negotiations on the nuclear program.
Hufbauer has dealt in detail with the history of sanctions. After that sanctions have merely brought the desired success in one third of cases. But the new money weapon could prove to be successful.
Currency reserves are melting away
With his announcement to set up their own payment system Putin acknowledges this indirectly, even if he gave himself emphasizes patriotic and joked that he had previously had an account with Rossiya, but will immediately open one .
How critical is the situation for Moscow, is also reflected in the foreign exchange and gold reserves. The have fallen in the past week to the lowest level since February 2011. Russia's central bank had used a portion of the monetary treasure to support the ruble.
Visa and MasterCard are internationally. You grant licenses to banks for the issuance of their credit cards and for billing. Putin said, even Japan and China have national credit card companies. These systems worked, "and they work very well." Therefore now also Russia will introduce such a payment system.
Loss of a "very profitable market"
Putin warned western companies are also facing a loss of profits and market share, they should limit payments in his country. "It's really unfortunate that some companies have decided restrictions," the president said at a meeting with senior MPs. "That will probably only cause them to lose some segments of the market - a very profitable market."
In fact, the financial war brings collateral damage for Western corporations. The shares of Visa and MasterCard have lost since the outbreak of the Crimean crisis more than five percent of its value. Due to the conflict with Russia, a market capitalization of eleven billion dollars was destroyed.
On Thursday it also became known that the Kremlin iPads from Apple against minicomputer from Samsung has replaced. Officially, the move was justified to use sensitive data on the devices.
