China’s Chouzhou Commercial Bank has notified its clients in Russia and Belarus that it is ending all of its operations there due to payment issues associated with Western sanctions, the Russian state-controlled media outlet Vedomosti reported on Feb. 7, citing sources.
Russian and Chinese payment systems still produce records viewable by Western regulators regardless of their SWIFT usage. Western sanctions enforcers have been putting increased pressure on Chinese banks to access transactions associated with Russia.
It seems like many humans would like to see solutions that work immediately (unlike what is possible in the real world). Sanctions do work, but they take time, just like everything else.