Switzerland rejected a wild request by President Zelensky to turn over Russia’s assets to Ukraine in order to pay for reconstruction costs. While Switzerland has frozen Russian assets in tandem with the Western nations, this was something of a “bridge too far” for the Swiss. Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said that it was important to protect individuals against the power of the state and to create a legal basis for confiscating funds.
A spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Fabian Maienfisch, told Russian news service RIA Novosti on Monday: “For the Swiss government, the confiscation of assets only on the basis of belonging to a state or being included in the sanctions list and using them to rebuild Ukraine is currently not an option of showing support for Ukraine.”
