"In the arsenal of economic weapons that the West can use against Russia, there is one which economists compare with the discharge of a nuclear bomb, that is excluding Russia from SWIFT- international network for the exchange of information between banks and financial institutions," the TV channel said, noting that recently the British newspaper the Guardian had raised this issue.
The effectiveness of this "weapon" was proven in the case with Iran, which was forced to return to diplomatic negotiations on its nuclear program, the channel said.
TVN BiŚ said that in the case of Russia, disconnecting SWIFT would have catastrophic consequences for the country, as it would make it impossible to carry out international payments and create chaos in the Russian financial system.
The anxiety of Russian officials, particularly, the Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev, regarding such ideas is understandable, the Polish channel said.
"Every day SWIFT executes around 15 million transactions with a daily turnover of $6 trillion. Now, the organization brings together more than 8,000 financial institutions in 208 countries. In Russia, the SWIFT system is used by 600 financial institutions and banks," the channel’s correspondent added.
