The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) reported that about 3.4 billion dollars in frozen Russian assets in Bern had been released.
Bern has released nearly $3.4 billion in Russian assets over the last month, which had been frozen under new sanctions, a recent report from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) indicates.
After seizing a number of additional Russian accounts worth $2.2 billion, tallies show a net reduction of $1.17 billion in total frozen assets compared to April 7, demonstrating that close to $3.4 billion has been released over the same time period. Swiss banks are currently holding $6.33 of locked-down Russian assets.
Regarding these unblocked assets, SECO senior official Erwin Bollinger explained that some of the frozen accounts were liberated due to a lack of evidence showing they belonged to a sanctioned entity.
Despite the repeated denial of the claims saying that the country has protected Russian money because of its secrecy laws, because of what Switzerland has been considered President Vladimir Putin’s ally. During a telephone call held between the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, this last has requested Washington to correct “this misleading impression immediately.”
Switzerland was one of the countries which chose voluntarily freeze Russian assets, using as pretexts under sanctions over the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
