The EU and the US could reach an agreement to exclude Russian financial institutions from the SWIFT banking communications network this weekend, dpa has learned.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi are due to meet for a videoconference aiming to agree on the step.
Calls grew steadily louder to exclude Russia from the global banking communication system SWIFT on Saturday, as fighting continued in the third day of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
An agreement is emerging, according to Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte.
"From what I am cautiously hearing, there seems to be no strong objections left," she said.
"We want the decision to be taken as soon as possible, but I cannot give a specific date," Simonyte said, according to the BNS agency.
The EU imposed an extensive package of sanctions on Russia on Friday in response to Moscow's aggressions. But it has been criticized as insufficient, not least because the step of excluding Russia from SWIFT payment network was not taken, amid doubts about the effectiveness of such a step.
Russia's immediate exclusion from SWIFT, considered the toughest weapon in the sanctions armoury, would effectively cut off Russian banks from the global financial system.
Some European states had baulked at the step, including Germany, prompting Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda to join Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to head for a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin to call for Berlin's support.
There were also protests outside the German embassy in some countries, including Lithuania.
The German government had voiced fears the step could have major consequences for its energy security as 50% of coal imported into Germany comes from Russia.
Cutting Russia out of the network could make it very difficult for Germany, and other countries, to pay for the energy imports.
However, by Saturday evening there were indications that Berlin too was ready to agree. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told dpa that progress on the move was being made at the highest level.
Others expressed concern that excluding Russia from SWIFT could harm their own countries, too. Several German ministers said they were working to minimize such damage.
More and more lawmakers appeared to have come to the view that the radical step was necessary.
"We should not forget that the Russians are accustomed to sanctions ... And if we exclude Russia from the SWIFT system, this will have serious consequences for NATO states. But it might work, while words alone are not enough," Czech President Milos Zeman said in voicing his support for the measure.
Latvia, which shares a border with Russia and with Russian ally Belarus, called not only for Russia, but also for Belarus to be excluded from SWIFT.
"Because the Lukashenko-regime is participating in the aggression against Ukraine, Belarus must also be cast out of SWIFT," the Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkvevics tweeted late Friday.
Other leaders, even those who were hesitant, said during the course of the day that they would not block such a step.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has said that while Vienna will not stand in the way of excluding Russia from SWIFT, he does not believe it will "bring the results that people are hoping for."
In a further increase of pressure on Germany, Italy and Cyprus, who had also been reluctant to sign off the SWIFT move, have now committed their support.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto rejected reports that his country would oppose Russia's exclusion from SWIFT.
"There is a lie being spread that Hungary would block part of the sanctions against Russia, for example, those related to the SWIFT system," Szijjarto wrote on his Facebook page, adding this was untrue.
"At no time have we opposed or blocked even a single sanctions bill, and we will not block anything," he further wrote.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban does not want to end up isolated in the EU, say observers in Budapest.
Russia meanwhile responded with anger to its exclusion from the Council of Europe, calling this a "politicized decision."
It was further proof "that the Council of Europe has lost its independence, has become an obedient instrument of the Western bloc and its satellites," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in Moscow on Saturday, a day after the council's decision.
The body, she said, had become "entangled in a double standard," adding that without Russia, the Council of Europe would lose its raison d'être.
SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a Belgian cooperative society that enables transactions between banks worldwide.
