The US might retaliate by cutting Russia from the international Swift financial system.
From the Telegraph…
…..”The ‘nuclear option’ of expelling Russia from the SWIFT system of international payments has gradually lost deterrent value. The Kremlin has been developing ways to work around it.
The
Carnegie Moscow Center says Russia has introduced a national version of SWIFT known as SPFS. The country could probably conduct transactions directly with China through the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System. It has introduced a National Payment Card System (MIR) in case Visa and Mastercard are suspended, and these can be linked with Chinese UnionPay and Japanese JCB.
The loss of SWIFT would be a major financial shock for Russia but it would also be painful for European companies, and untenable in light of Europe’s gas dependency.
“Disconnecting SWIFT is absolute fantasy. Are Germans going to carry money in suitcases to Russia to pay for their gas?” said Vladimir Dzhabarov from the Russian Federal Council. ….”…..