ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland has frozen financial assets amounting to 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.94 billion) as of Nov. 25 under sanctions against Russians to punish Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said on Thursday.
SECO, the agency overseeing sanctions, added that 15 properties in six cantons are also “blocked”. It did not name the cantons.
Up until June 3, SECO had been notified of existing deposits held by Russian nationals and natural persons and legal entities in Russia amounting to 46.1 billion francs, it said.
Neutral Switzerland has routinely adopted European Union sanctions that aim to punish Russia for invading Ukraine.
But pressure has mounted on Switzerland – a popular destination for Moscow’s elite and a holding place for Russian wealth – to more quickly identify and freeze assets of hundreds of sanctioned Russians.
As of July, Switzerland had frozen 6.7 billion Swiss francs’ ($7.11 billion) worth of Russian financial assets and 15 properties.
($1 = 0.9443 Swiss francs)
(Writing by Paul Carrel, editing by Rachel More and Miranda Murray)
