GOING BETTER THAN EVEN WE THOUGHT IT WOULD:

Two until now major pro-Russian voices in the European Union, Czech President Milos Zeman and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, didn't mince their words in criticizing Moscow's most aggressive action since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Their countries experienced comparable brutality -- the Czech Republic, as part of Czechoslovakia, in 1968 and Hungary in 1956.

Zeman called Thursday's invasion "an unprovoked act of aggression."

"Russia has committed a crime against peace," he said in an address to the nation.

Zeman had previously made news by calling Russia's 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula "a fait accompli."

Many in the Czech Republic reviled Zeman as a "servant of Kremlin" after he sided with Russia and cast doubt on the findings of his own security and intelligence services on the alleged participation of Russian spies in a huge 2014 ammunition explosion.

Western leaders, wary of sending troops into Ukraine, have so far avoided denying access to SWIFT. However, the U.K., Canada and the Netherlands are now publicly advocating for it, while Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington have escalated their calls in recent days for expelling Russia.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Friday that the Netherlands supports barring Russia. The EU "took a big step forward concerning SWIFT," he said at a press briefing in The Hague. "We drew a clear picture based on a proposal from the French on what the pros and cons are to make sure we can decide to add it at a later stage."

The U.K. has been on the record saying it wants to take action on this. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the BBC on Friday that "we'd like to do the SWIFT system." He was also clear there were still some holdouts: "These are international organizations and if not every country wants them to be thrown out of the SWIFT system, it becomes difficult."

Tweet   @brothersjudd