The initiator of the idea of disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT international payment system, as well as blocking the assets of the Central Bank, was the ex-Prime Minister of Bulgaria Kirill Petkov, reports Die Welt.
Petkov made such a proposal on February 25 at an informal meeting of the European Council in Brussels. There he talked with European leaders who were initially against the introduction of this measure, but as a result, the European Commission supported the initiative.
sanctions against the Russian Central Bank (Central Bank), namely the freezing of the regulator reserves in various national currencies, in late February 2022 were introduced by the United States, the European Union (EU), Great Britain and Japan. So the countries reacted to the beginning of the war in Ukraine.