(Promsvyazbank logo via Wikipedia)
RT reported the following:
Russian sanctions-proof payment system to benefit the world – top banker
The Ukraine conflict has shown that the West’s SWIFT network has become a political pressure tool, PSB’s Pyotr Fradkov has said
12 August 2026
Russia has the capability to set up its own comprehensive cross-border payment network that would be domestic in origin, but international in function, the chairman of Promsvyazbank (PSB), Pyotr Fradkov, has said.
In October 2024, PSB launched the A7 system of international payments, which according to its website, now services 2,000 transactions of various sizes on a daily basis and already accounts for some 20% of all foreign trade settlements by Russian companies.
The creation of the system was a response to the sanctions placed on Russia by the US and EU after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, which included the disconnection of almost all of the country’s banks from the SWIFT global settlement network, Fradkov said in an interview with RBK …
After the restrictions were introduced, it became obvious that Western financial instruments “can be a tool for political pressure and influence,” the banker explained.
In such conditions, Russia “needs to create its own payment framework – domestic in origin, but international in function. We have plenty of both technical solutions and financial capabilities,” Fradkov insisted.
“PSB, together with the A7 cross-border payment system, is developing one of these projects for a new payment architecture where payment does not depend on the approval of a third party,” he said.
The goal of the A7 system is “to form our own payment infrastructure capable of conducting international operations independently of external restrictions,” the PSC chairman explained.
“The system is designed in such a way that, even after being sanctioned repeatedly, in various forms and types, the company continued its activities in processing payments for our clients,” he said.
Frabkov explained that from a legal point of view “no sanctions are being violated [by A7] because there is no such thing as a cross-border payment. It’s precisely that which has restrictions. There are distributed liquidity pools that exist worldwide in various currencies. If you take the jurisdiction of each individual country where we operate, then within it, this is absolutely normal, standard business that complies with all the regulations of that country.”
A7 is designed not only to bypass sanctions, but also be a competitive product on the international market that can be conveniently used by other countries to trade not only with Russia, but also with each other, he said.
According to the banker, it is important that Russia is “not unique” in developing a domestic settlement system as “many countries are following this path – Indonesia, Brazil, and others.” https://www.rt.com/russia/644163-sanctions-payment-a7-fradkov/
Pointing to the weaponization of traditional global settlement systems and the dollar – the “soft power [tool] that now serves as the foundation for controlling transactions and settlements worldwide,” Fradkov explained that moving away from the dollar in settlements is not enough, and must be accompanied by work to achieve independence from external financial frameworks altogether.
Promsvyazbank’s A7 cross-border settlement system project is one such means. The system:
allows for payments to be made without third-party authorization using specialized, ruble-pegged stablecoins, which have already grown to become the world’s largest non-dollar-denominated stablecoins ($140B in turnover to date)uses distributed liquidity pools in different countries in various currencies. No sanctions are technically violated, “because there are no actual cross-border payments as such.”is designed to tap into a global system of transactions measuring the equivalent of trillions of dollars
“It is precisely settlements not pegged to USD that represent the market share that will grow and may over time become a genuine alternative to the established Western infrastructure,” Fradkov emphasizes, pointing out that other countries, like Brazil, Turkiye and Kazakhstan have launched similar experiments. https://sputnikglobe.com/20260811/head-of-top-russian-bank-details-revolutionary-payment-system-invulnerable-to-weaponized-dollar-1124563549.html
Before talking about SWIFT and bypassing the USA dollar, let’s go over a brief history of current sanctions on Russia.
It was after the USA backed a coup to get rid of Ukraine’s democratically elected president, Russia took action in Crimea–which was then part of Ukraine. In 2014, Crimea voted to leave Ukraine and become part of Russia. Russia later accepted and annexed the territory.
The USA would not accept the vote by the Crimeans primarily because it seems to want to stop Russia from expanding. The USA pushed for international sanctions with Europe, many of which still remain, in an effort to hope Russia would release Crimea to Ukraine.
Even though the USA and many in Europe have wanted Russia to leave Crimea, on March 18, 2019, I posted:
It remains my view that Crimea and at least parts of eastern Ukraine will ultimately align with Russia.
International sanctions will not stop biblical prophecies from being fulfilled. (Thiel B. ‘Putin in Crimea as Russia Marks Five Years Since Annexation’ the ‘Kings of the Medes’ will arise. COGwriter, March 18, 2019)
And the events of the past few years confirmed my view that sanctions would not stop Russia from having territories align with it. Additional sanctions have been imposed since Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ into Ukraine in 2022.
Yet, the various sanctions announced by the USA and the Europeans look mainly to be political punishment, as opposed to being announced by those who seriously believe that they will get Russia to cede Crimea and/or the Donbass region back to Ukrainian control (it would probably take a pro-Russian government in Kiev for Russia to consider doing that).
Back in 2018, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put out the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:
Russia, Sanctions, Transnistria, Europe & Prophecy
In 2014 the USA and European Union put sanctions on Russia because of its acquisition of Crimea. Since Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ into Ukraine, more sanctions were added. On February 23, 2024, the EU and USA announced more sanctions. Did the sanctions turn the “ruble into rubble” as Joe Biden hoped? Did Russia acquire more territory as Dr. Thiel warned in 2013, 2018, and 2022 prior to the current conflict? Was he right about sanctions? Will Russia and Europe acquire more territory? Will they one day trade more with each other? Will they one day turn against each other? What about Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, and Armenia? Are the Russian-led ‘kings of the Medes’ prophesied to destroy the coming Babylonian European Beast power? Does Europe, starting with Benelux to the European Economic Community to the European Union look to be fulfilling Daniel 8:9? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel address these issues.
Here is a link to our video: Russia, Sanctions, Transnistria, Europe & Prophecy.
Now, what about bypassing SWIFT?
Back in 2024, the Continuing Church of God put together the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:
SWIFT end to the US dollar?
After World War II, the US dollar became the world’s primary international trading currency. In this video Dr. Thiel and Steve Dupuie went over some of the reasons for that development. They also discussed US dominance of SWIFT. SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. SWIFT provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions. The use of sanctions and the weaponization of SWIFT by the US was brought out as were alternatives to SWIFT development by Russia (System for Transfer of Financial Messages-SPFS) and China (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System-CIPS). Also the BRICS Pay alternative to SWIFT, mentioned at the BRICS Kazan Summit in October 2024 was mentioned as well as “the Unit”, which is a potential, gold-backed currency that Vladimir Putin brought up as another alternative. An article titled ‘The Biggest Story that’s NOT Being Told Will WREAK HAVOC on the US Economy’ was discussed along with the specter of extreme inflation hitting the US once its dollar is no longer relied on internationally. The fact that SWIFT is supposed to be a European system, and one that Europeans want more control of, was mentioned along with the fact that the Europeans could also push harder for the end of SWIFT and/or the US dollar dominance. The timing of the coming Great Tribulation and US banking/financial matters was also mentioned.
Here is a link to our video: SWIFT end to the US dollar?
Russia’s bypassing SWIFT is not helpful for the economy of the USA.
Let me also add that India and the European Union have also looked at bypassing SWIFT in efforts to not be subject to as much USA interference (see India and European Union linking up to bypass US dollar and SWIFT).
Notice also the following:
August 12, 2026
Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati announced on 12 August that the country will soon be joining the New Development Bank (NDB).
“The most important result of cooperation among BRICS member countries is the establishment of the New Development Bank, and our country will soon become a member of this bank,” said Hemmati.
BRICS states have worked to cut their reliance on the dollar by pushing for trade and financial transactions in national currencies.
Hemmati said member states are able to trade with one another in their own currencies, as Iran remains under sweeping western sanctions and seeks to build an alternative economic network around them.
“We are seeking to establish bilateral and trilateral monetary cooperation with member states,” he said.
Hemmati is currently attending the first meeting of BRICS finance ministers and central bank governors, hosted by India, which holds the group’s rotating chairmanship this year. …
The bloc’s most recent steps toward de-dollarization have included individual arrangements such as yuan payments for energy trade and Russia–Iran efforts to connect their banking systems rather than a single BRICS-wide monetary system. https://thecradle.co/articles-id/39338
Others are also seeing that the USA has been pushing nations away from its dollar because of sanctions as well as debt:
As our good friend economic forecaster Martin Armstrong has spent decades pointing out via his Economic Confidence Model, financial markets do not move linearly, and currencies are not valued in a vacuum. Armstrong’s core contribution to capital flow analysis is his “outside-in” principle: capital moves globally like a herd of wild animals, fleeing sovereign risk and seeking deep, liquid safe havens.
Armstrong famously describes the major global reserve currencies as the “three ugly sisters”—the U.S. Dollar, the Euro, and the Japanese Yen. The dollar doesn’t win because it is pristine; it wins because it is the least structurally broken sister. “It’s not about gold, and it’s not about moral purity—capital flows to where it can hide, trade, and exit without state confiscation. The dollar is the best-looking ugly sister.” …
Having watched the West freeze $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves, Beijing isn’t building CIPS and mBridge to conquer Wall Street. It is building a financial bunker. These systems are defensive “fire exits”—ensuring that if primary U.S. sanctions ever strike Beijing, its critical energy and raw material imports won’t instantly collapse.
The Real Threat to the Greenback
The dollar’s offshore asset pool exceeds $15 trillion. …
The greatest threat to the dollar does not live in Beijing, Moscow, or Riyadh. It lives in Washington.
As Armstrong’s capital flow models highlight, reserve currencies don’t get overthrown by foreign rivals; they commit suicide through domestic fiscal mismanagement. Endless structural deficits, weaponizing SWIFT without a long-term strategy, and periodic debt-ceiling brinkmanship do far more to erode trust in the greenback than Chinese financial engineering ever could. 08/11/26 https://khlfsn.substack.com/p/the-dollar-is-dead-long-live-the
As long time readers of this COGwriter Church of God New page are aware, I have long warned that there would be costs for USA sanctions.
And there have been.
The world has been partially reshaped because of them and the long term affects will be even worse for the USA than they have been so far.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
The End of US Dollar Dominance Is the USA losing its economic status? What about the petro-gold-yuan? A related video is also available: US Dollar being challenged by Gold-Petro-Yuan.
Russia and Ukraine: Their Origins and Prophesied Future Russia in prophecy. Where do the Russians come from? What about those in the Ukraine? What is prophesied for Russia and its allies? What will they do to the Europeans that supported the Beast in the end? There is also a video sermon available: Russia in the Bible and in Prophecy as are two video sermonettes Russia, Ukraine, Babylonian Europe, and Prophecy and Ukraine in Prophecy?
Who is the King of the West? Why is there no Final End-Time King of the West in Bible Prophecy? Is the United States the King of the West? Here is a version in the Spanish language: ¿Quién es el Rey del Occidente? ¿Por qué no hay un Rey del Occidente en la profecía del tiempo del fin? A related sermon is also available: The Bible, the USA, and the King of the West.
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about the peoples of Africa, Asia, South America, and the islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon; When Will the End of the Age Come?; Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
LATEST AUDIO NEWS & ANALYSIS REPORTS
