Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports idea of ​​transferring frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, but banks oppose it

Head of Foreign Ministry of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis, declared his country's support for the idea of ​​confiscating frozen Russian assets, Bloomberg reported.

Thus, in the future, finances should be directed to restoration of Ukraine.

"If we are serious about helping rebuild Ukraine, we need to think about how we will finance it," he said. Authorities in a number of countries are discussing such a move, Cassis added, "but it has to be done properly under the rule of law."

Switzerland currently has 7.5 billion francs ($8.2 billion) of assets that the country has frozen from Russians under sanctions.  However, they cannot be legally confiscated, and changing the law would likely require a referendum.

"We can't just take money that doesn't belong to us just because we think it's morally right," Ignazio Cassis said. "The right to property is fundamental."

According to Bloomberg, Swiss banks were very critical of the proposal.  Neglecting property rights in this way will undermine Switzerland's position as a financial center, NZZ newspaper quoted an anonymous banker as saying.  Another called it "death sentence" for Swiss banks.

• As of November 25, Hungary has frozen 870 million euros, or about 350 billion forints, of Russian assets, according to a recent summary of the European Commission.

• As of December, in Germany, as a result of EU sanctions against Russia, assets of sanctioned persons totaling about 5 billion euros were frozen.

• The European Commission is studying legal options for confiscation of Russian state and private property as payment for restoration of Ukraine.

• On December 22, the US Senate voted to include in a draft budget an amendment that would allow confiscating frozen assets of Russian oligarchs for the benefit of Ukraine.