A reminder that the Russian Federation has been working over a decade on alternative payment systems to SWIFT in case this day would arrive that they may be disconnected. The mainstream media narrative of potentially using SWIFT to put Russia in their place is a fallacy fooling the pubic at large into thinking it is an effective tool. Do not be misled to think this will harm or stop President Putin's actions. There are alternative payment systems already up, tested and running for Russian businesses and government to conduct business internally and internationally.

1. SPFS -Russia’s System for Transfer of Financial Messages. equivalent of SWIFT and was developed by the Central Bank of Russia since 2014, after the United States government threatened to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT system.

2. INSTEX - Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges. Was used to facilitate legitimate trade with Iran while under sanctions in light of challenges faced by European market participants.

3. MIR - is a Russian payment system for electronic fund transfers established by the Central Bank of Russia under a law adopted on 1 May 2017. Mir cards are accepted mostly by Russia-based companies, such as Aeroflot or Russian Railways, although it is gradually becoming popular among foreign companies with Russian operations.

4. Payment-versus-Payment (PVP) - is a prophylactic foreign exchange settlement mechanism that requires the simultaneous transfer of currencies for purposes of transactional security. Tested as a yuan-ruble payment system for financial businesses.

5. China’s cross-border interbank payment system, CIPS - the main purpose of the system is to encourage international use of the yuan, but it also provides an alternative to the western SWIFT payment system. Russia has participated in this.

6. Russia had their CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) under trials last month. They invited non-banking partners such as exchanges and credit institutions to the network to test the system for moments like this. There is more development and stage 2 trials this year so I'm not sure this is a immediate solution.

Anonymous claims to have taken down Russia's RT.com servers. Now can confirm that the servers are down.

Also - The government of Ukraine is asking for volunteers from the country's hacker underground to help protect critical infrastructure and conduct cyber spying missions against Russian troops, according two people involved in the project.

Concerns arise over Bio Safety Labs in Ukraine funded by the US DoD and whether 'gain-of-function' studies of viruses have taken place at the BSL's. If Russia bombs one of these labs, things can get serious.

Wheat trade routes in South Caucasus may be affected by Russia/Ukraine conflict. Ukraine closed the Sea of Azov. Turkey may close the Bosporus (Strait of Istanbul) if there is escalation. China has announced it is fully open to Russian wheat imports. China had previously restricted imports of Russian grain due to phytosanitary concerns – measures for the control of plant diseases. As the world’s largest exporter of wheat, Russia sent more than 30 million metric tonnes abroad in the first 11 months of last year. China’s 2021 wheat imports rose by 16.6 per cent, year on year, to 9.77 million metric tonnes.

BREAKING NEWS- EU Parliament has postponed its vote on the proposed regulatory package for crypto assets after a leaked draft drew criticism for including a provision that sought to ban the use of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether in the EU over energy concerns.
A draft of the framework, which included a provision that can be interpreted to imply that lawmakers were planning to restrict the use of cryptocurrencies that rely on an energy-intensive computing process called proof-of-work.
https://twitter.com/DrStefanBerger/status/1497151798355898368?s=20&t=A-Don95r1UHjlwKip7JQVw
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/25/european-parliament-postpones-vote-on-crypto-regulations-indefinitely/
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/24/eu-parliamentarians-push-to-limit-bitcoin-use-over-energy-concerns/

The Ukraine/Black Sea Maritime Incident- Japanese bulk carrier NAMURA QUEEN was hit by a missile on Feb 25 at Yizhniy Port outer Anchorage, Ukraine, Black sea. Fire extinguished.
MILLENIAL SPIRIT, is said to suffer fire, destroyed lifeboats, other equipment, and crew reportedly, abandoned the ship.
https://twitter.com/ua_intelligence/status/1497206869986787330?s=20&t=932yAJxq4ujrLwTztqcTrw

Early unconfirmed reports of cyberattack - U.S chipmaker Nvidia Corp is investigating a potential cyberattack that may have taken parts of its business offline for two days. A malicious network intrusion caused outages in Nvidia's email systems and developer tools.

Supply chain disruptions, with a lopsided supply and demand battle of semiconductor chips signals continued turbulence ahead. The world’s major chipmakers, largely focused in Taiwan, South Korea and Mainland China, are operating at 90% production capacity.

British Airways experiencing major outage, possible cyberattack - Second time in a week. British Airways said its website and app was suffering from a technical issue, with no suggestion that it was a cyber attack, after passengers complained on social media of delayed flights and no information at airports. The Independent has reported that all of BA’s flights from London’s Heathrow have been grounded. https://bit.ly/3M6X8hg

US -California: The federal government says it won’t deliver any water to California farmers because of a severe drought. The decision will force many farmers to plant fewer crops in a region that supplies a quarter of the nation’s food. California agriculture industry to shrink by an estimated 8,745 jobs.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said a severe drought plaguing the western United States has left its system of reservoirs depleted. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-02-25/california-agriculture-takes-1-2-billion-hit-during-drought

ECB president calls for crypto regulation in response to Russia potentially evading sanctions. “Whenever there is a ban or prohibition or a mechanism in place to boycott or prohibit, there are always criminal ways that will try to circumvent the prohibition or the ban,” said Lagarde. “It’s so critically important that MiCA is pushed through as quickly as possible so we have a regulatory framework within which crypto assets can actually be caught.” https://tinyurl.com/2p9e5yzc

If MiCA goes ahead as drafted, usage of the DAI could be restricted within the EU.
https://tinyurl.com/2p8b2uwj

Real-time network data show a major disruption to Ukraine's internet backbone provider GigaTrans, which supplies connectivity to many other networks. The incident comes as heavy fighting is reported in Kyiv. https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1497409488403505153?s=20&t=LFr-KiI1C-QRYDjn6lsobA

Questions arise around Russia's role in using this military action via proxy to destabilise the US DoD influence entangled with member corporations of the Alliance for Biosecurity. The Alliance is involved in private/gov't vaccine/virus/pathogen GoF research.

With the support of the US, the first biological centre in Ukraine was opened on 15 June 2010 as part of the Mechnikov Anti-Plague Research Institute in Odessa and assigned a level allowing work with strains used in the development of biological weapons.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/11/24/pentagon-biological-laboratories-ukraine/

Among the set of bilateral agreements between the US and Ukraine is the establishment of the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) – an International organization funded mainly by the US government which has been accorded diplomatic status. The US personnel in Ukraine work on viruses at BSL's under diplomatic cover and have diplomatic immunity.

Ukraine has no control over the military bio-laboratories on its own territory. According to the 2005 Agreement between the US DoD and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine the Ukrainian government is prohibited from public disclosure of sensitive information about the US program and Ukraine is obliged to transfer to the US Department of Defense (DoD) dangerous pathogens for biological research.

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2022/02/24/us-bio