Switzerland says there are no grounds for transferring Russian assets to Kyiv

Now Switzerland has no legal grounds to transfer Russian assets frozen in the country to Ukraine, Swiss Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Lillian Lay said. write “RIA News”.

“Switzerland respects human rights and the right to property is one of them. At the moment, we have no legal grounds for transferring Russian assets frozen in the country to Ukraine,” she said.

Last week, in an interview with Tages-Anzeiger, the head of the Swiss foreign affairs department, Ignazio Cassis declaredthat the country is feeling pressure from the international community, which requires the involvement of all states in the process of transferring frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. “If you want to give this money to Ukraine, you need appropriate international and national legal adjustments,” Cassis said, noting that the disposal of the frozen funds would require a nationwide referendum.

He also added that the right to property is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is on the same level as freedom of speech.

At the end of September 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that Switzerland block Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine. He also expressed his wish that Switzerland increase its support for the country.

Last fall, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested create a structure for managing Russian assets. According to her, the blocked funds of the Russian Central Bank and the assets of Russian oligarchs confiscated due to sanctions should be combined into a fund, the funds of which should be invested, and the profit from these investments should be used for compensation payments to Ukraine. The head of the EC specified that Western countries blocked 300 billion euros of reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen.

The Kremlin called the freezing of Russian assets theft. At the end of October, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the blocking of assets abroad is contrary to international law. He noted that Russia is limited in its actions to combat such a decision, but the Russian authorities will not “sit idly by.”