Switzerland rejects criticism over handling of Russian assets

Director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) government department Helene Budliger has said that Switzerland insisted it was clamping down on Russian assets parked in the country after other countries accused the Swiss of not going far enough.

Bern has frozen 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($8.3 billion) in assets since imposing sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine last year, Budliger Artieda noted, according to Barron’s.

That is the equivalent of around "a good third" of the 21.5 billion euros ($23.4 billion) frozen across the neighbouring European Union, she told the Neue Zurcher Zeitung newspaper.

Switzerland is not in the EU but has matched the bloc's sanctions on Russia.

Budliger Artieda voiced surprise that Switzerland could therefore be accused of being "negligent" in its obligations.

Last week, the Group of Seven powers asked Switzerland to be more active in freezing the assets of Russian oligarchs, said the Handelszeitung newspaper.

A confidential letter signed by all the G7 countries' ambassadors in Bern was sent to the Swiss government asking it to do more, the weekly said.

Last month Scott Miller, the US ambassador to Switzerland, took aim at SECO, estimating that Bern could block a further 50 to 100 billion Swiss francs ($55-110 billion) in Russian assets.