The upper house of the Swiss parliament on Thursday passed by a modest majority a proposal to allow frozen Russian assets in the country to be given to Ukraine as war reparations, Világgazdaság reports.
The issue has sparked heated debate in the shadow of the banking system, a key sector for the country’s neutrality. For the time being, the ruling only allows the government to find a way in international law to allow the Swiss assets of the aggressor country to be transferred to the attacked country.
The Swiss newspaper noted that assets of the Russian central bank worth 7.4 billion Swiss francs (€7.7 billion) have been frozen in Switzerland, which although not insignificant, is dwarfed when compared to the approximately €200 billion frozen in the European Union. The proposal was already voted through in the lower house of parliament last year.
During the parliamentary debate, Federal Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said, “The facts are clear, Russia has seriously violated international law and must pay for the damage it has caused.”
Bern now wants to find an international legal basis for a reparation mechanism at the global level, which would transfer the resources of the central bank and state-owned companies of the offending country to the attacked country.
