Switzerland blocked Russian assets worth $8.8 billion

The total volume of frozen assets increased slightly compared to last year. Swiss authorities said they saw no legal basis for their confiscation. Such a step is being discussed in the EU . RUSSIA compared it to theft

The Swiss government has frozen the assets of Russians totaling 7.7 billion Swiss francs (about $8.8 billion) as part of sanctions due to the military operation in Ukraine , REUTERS reports .

The volume of frozen Russian assets turned out to be slightly higher than the estimate that Swiss authorities gave last year (7.5 billion Swiss francs, or about $8.56 billion), the agency notes.

Switzerland joined the sanctions that the European Union imposed against Russia due to the military operation in Ukraine. In February, the government said the confiscation of frozen private assets was “incompatible with the Swiss Constitution, the current legal order and in violation of international obligations.” The possibility of confiscating such assets was opposed by the Swiss Bankers Association, which stated that there was no legal basis for this.

At the same time, the Swiss Ministry of Justice stated that Russia, by launching a military operation, violated international law and “in principle” is obliged to compensate for the damage. Bern is monitoring discussions at the international level regarding the possibility of confiscating the foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Central Bank, the country's government noted.

The idea of ​​seizing Russia's frozen assets to help Ukraine has been discussed in the European Union for several months. According to  BLOOMBERG , in mid-December the European Commission will unveil a plan that proposes to tax profits from more than €200 billion of frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank. At the same time, concerns about the risks associated with the use of Russian assets were expressed by the European Central Bank and several EU member countries.

The Russian authorities called Western sanctions illegitimate, and all cases of blocking of assets and their potential use for any purpose were illegal. President Vladimir Putin compared such actions to theft. The Kremlin said Moscow will challenge all decisions to confiscate Russia's foreign assets.

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