Switzerland adopts wholesale EU sanctions against Russia

Switzerland, a bastion of neutrality through two world wars, has decided to adopt wholesale swingeing EU sanctions against Russia, potentially freezing billions of dollars in assets and further increasing the pressure on the Russian economy. Swiss national bank data showed that Russian companies and individuals held assets worth more than $11bn in Swiss banks in 2020.

The Federal Council also announced it had banned five oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin from entering the country. Flights from Russia are being banned, although this will not apply to flights carrying diplomats.

Switzerland had until now adopted very limited measures, including barring Swiss companies from taking on new business with three Russian oligarchs named by the EU as sanctions targets last week. Switzerland is obliged by law to adopt UN sanctions but has a choice over how it responds to EU measures. Its refusal to do more last week was heavily criticised by the EU for letting neutrality and Swiss banking laws become complicity.

The government is not imposing a ban on commodity trading. Nearly 80% of Russian commodity trading takes place virtually via financial service centres in Switzerland. Russian energy and raw materials groups such as Gazprom and Russian state banks have major branches in Switzerland.

More than 20,000 people marched though Berne on Sunday in protest at the invasion, and the Swiss socialist party had urged the executive Federal Council to take stronger measures.

Formally, the measures do not undermine that widely supported neutrality principle, as Switzerland says it is acting in defence of international law, but Moscow is hardly likely to accept that explanation.

On Sunday the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, asked his Swiss counterpart to act as a neutral mediator between Ukraine and Russia and help work towards a ceasefire, notably in the context of a Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva opening on Monday.