Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, saying his country supported excluding Russia from the international payment system SWIFT to make it harder to finance the invasion of Ukraine. .

Trudeau announced in a media appearance a third round of sanctions against Russia that includes not only Putin but also his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

The Canadian prime minister said the world is witnessing “the horrors” of Putin’s war and that Canada is ready to put “all options on the table” to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Referring to Putin and Lavrov, Trudeau said “these men bear the main responsibility for the death and destruction that is happening in Ukraine” and said the Russian president must pay to end 75 years of peace in Europe.

The Canadian prime minister has said the target of personal sanctions against Putin is the “considerable wealth” that the Russian president directly controls and hides through intermediaries.

“Canada, the UK and other countries believe that Russia should be excluded from the SWIFT system and these discussions are continuing with European allies,” he explained.

Given the reluctance of some European countries to exclude Russia from the SWIFT system, Trudeau said Putin could not be allowed to benefit from the financial system that “peace” in Europe has created over the past decades.

“Putin made a big mistake” by invading Ukraine, Trudeau repeated.

For her part, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, declared that the objective is “to stifle the Russian regime” and that, for this, Western countries will use “creative methods” to exert maximum pressure. against Moscow.

The SWIFT system, acronym for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications or Society for Worldwide Interbank and Financial Communications, created in 1973, is an international communication network between financial entities which includes thousands of institutions.

The SWIFT system allows the transmission of payment orders and financial transactions, so the exclusion of Russia would prevent the country’s financial institutions from sending or receiving money, both abroad and in the country.

The exclusion of SWIFT would lead to the contraction of the Russian economy, in 2014 the former Russian Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin estimated a loss of 5% of the value, and a massive outflow of capital.