No SWIFT, not even the Internet: Bitcoin in Russia still has potential

With a combination of external punitive measures and internal strife, Russian financial turmoil looks set to continue – and the mood about Bitcoin’s future role is definitively mixed.
In a resolution adopted Thursday last week, the European Parliament called on member states to move to block Russian access to the SWIFT payment system. The legislation will now move forward to the European Commission, whereupon it will rest with individual states to act together if it is to come into force, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is the system used for most of the international bank-to-bank payments, which occur every day. Russia has for the past six months been searching for an alternative, having highlighted a desire to move away from the existing USA-dominated system.
‘Experts say that switching to an alternative transaction system may take at least a year,’ RIA notes.

This post was published at Coin Telegraph on 2014-09-22.