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A world“ after SWIFT” prepared behind the scenes
Ce que beaucoup ont découvert en 2022, Moscow had anticipated this as early as 2014. After the annexation of Crimea and the first sanctions, the Kremlin had learned a simple lesson: financial dependence is a strategic vulnerability. Since then, Russia had worked slowly and methodically:
• creation of the SPFS, a national alternative to
SWIFT,
• building up non-dollar reserves,
• bilateral agreements in local currencies,
• strengthening economic ties with China.
Flashmag! Issue 168 January 2026
This work was nothing spectacular. It was often considered ineffective, marginal, secondary. Until the day it became vital. When the sanctions were imposed, Russia was not ready to prosper outside the Western system. But it was ready to survive. And sometimes, survival is enough to change history. In Wallerstein’ s framework, Russia occupies an ambiguous position between the center and the semi-periphery. It depends on global markets, but has structural advantages( energy resources, relative food autonomy, strategic depth). Since 2014, Russia has embarked on a process of partial disengagement from the Western world economy: reducing its external debt, accumulating gold, developing the SPFS, and signing bilateral agreements in local currencies. These measures were not intended to create a fully functional alternative system, but to reduce systemic vulnerability. The war in Ukraine has transformed this defensive strategy into a full-scale experiment. The result is clear: financial exclusion has not led to the expected collapse. This observation, more than any political statement, is a major structural signal.
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