The decision by the United States and the European Union to disconnect selected Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and to freeze Russia’s foreign reserves might have significant, long-term effects on the international monetary system. While transformations within this system have historically been slow to materialise, the range and scope of the recently deployed sanctions will most likely catalyse a global push to diversify away from the US dollar-centric global financial system. Whether the US and European countries, as well as their allies, strengthen or reduce financial sanctions against Russia in the future, their “weaponisation” of finance against a G20 country like Russia sets a historical precedent that will amplify concerns around the globe that one day any country could be disconnected from Western-led financial infrastructure.