The EU and the United States heavily sanction Russia, but without excluding it from Swift

The European Union, meeting at a summit in Brussels, approved Thursday evening "massive" sanctions against Russia, after its invasion of Ukraine, without however going so far as to exclude the country from the Swift international banking system. “Russian leaders will face unprecedented isolation,” promised Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This is the "toughest set of sanctions ever implemented" by the EU, said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. The Twenty-Seven want to punish the regime of President Vladimir Putin with financial sanctions. These include drastically limiting Russia's access to European capital markets, hampering Moscow's ability to refinance its debt there.

The EU will also reduce Russia's access to "crucial technologies", depriving it of electronic components and software, so as to "seriously penalize all aspects of the Russian economy", said Ms von der Leyen. And in Washington, US President Joe Biden on Thursday defended an arsenal of sanctions developed by the United States aimed at dealing a terrible blow to finance and the Russian economy. These economic and financial reprisals "exceed anything that has ever been done", argued the American president during a long-awaited televised address from the White House. But neither the EU nor the United States have excluded Russia from the Swift interbank network, an essential cog in global finance. It is “an option”, assured Mr. Biden.

Ukraine: Macron announces an acceleration of the deployment of French soldiers in Romania

Emmanuel Macron announced Friday in Brussels that France would accelerate the deployment of soldiers in Romania within the framework of NATO, in response to the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. "France will continue to fully play its role of reassuring NATO allies by sending a new contingent to Estonia within the enhanced forward presence, anticipating its participation in the policing of the Baltic skies from March, and by also accelerating its deployment in Romania", declared the French president at the end of an exceptional EU summit in Brussels and on the eve of a NATO summit devoted to the crisis in Ukraine. Mr. Macron also considered it useful to "leave open the path" of dialogue with Moscow to obtain a halt to his offensive in Ukraine, while denouncing the "duplicity" of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with whom he says he had a " frank, direct, rapid exchange".

Ukraine invasion drags markets, but Wall Street ends up

European stock markets fell, commodities soared, and Wall Street ended higher after a crazy day marked by the invasion of Ukraine. In Europe, stock markets had one of the worst sessions since March 2020 and the implementation of the lockdowns, losing up to 5% at the worst of the day.

After the close, Frankfurt lost 3.96%, Paris 3.83%, Milan 4.14%, London 3.88% (adjusted figure shortly after the close) and the Eurostoxx 50, benchmark, 3.63 %. The Warsaw Stock Exchange, the main financial center of Central and Eastern Europe, fell by more than 10% and that of Moscow collapsed by more than 35%. Wall Street, on the other hand, made the rubber band and finished on the rise. The Dow Jones ended up 0.28%.

IN SHORT

The Parliament adopted, after a final vote of the deputies, a bill carried by the presidential majority aiming to create a new offense of school harassment, a phenomenon against which the public authorities want to strengthen their response.

Three police officers present during the fatal arrest of George Floyd in 2020 were found guilty Thursday by a federal court of not having intervened to provide assistance to the African-American, dying before their eyes.

Who to succeed "Adieu les Cons", the big winner of the Césars last year? French cinema awards its most popular statuettes on Friday evening, with a favorite, the film "Illusions Perdues", adapted from Balzac.