"Undermining the Constitution": in Switzerland refused to transfer frozen assets of the Russian Federation to Ukraine

Berne concluded that they could not confiscate Russian funds, as this is contrary to the laws of the republic, but promised to continue to support Ukraine in other ways. The Swiss Federal Council has been clarified from the Federal Department of Justice that the confiscation of frozen Russian assets for the restoration of Ukraine is impossible. The press service of the Federal Council reports on Wednesday, February 15.

The statement stated that the working group that studied the confiscation issue concluded that it was "undermining the federal constitution and the current legal order. " At the same time, the department states that, since Russia has violated international law, invading Ukraine, the Kremlin is obliged to pay the compensation to Kiev for harm.

In Switzerland, it is believed that Russian assets have been legally received, so if removed, by federal law, they will need to compensate for their value to the owners. "The expropriation of private assets of legal origin without compensation is unacceptable under Swiss legislation. Confiscation of frozen private assets is incompatible with the federal constitution and the current law and order and violates Switzerland's international obligations.

Other countries have similar constitutional rights and guarantees," The Federal Council states that Berne considers the possibility of confiscation of foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and other state assets. At the same time, the Council promised that Switzerland would continue to support Ukraine regardless of discussing the possibility of confiscation of frozen assets.

We will remind, on February 15, Bloomberg wrote that in the European Union are ready to force banks to report information about the assets of the Central Bank of Russia within the last package of sanctions against the Russian Federation. This is necessary to study the options for the potential use of these funds to promote the restoration of Ukraine. Earlier, on January 13, Focus wrote that the IMF mission began in Ukraine. The purpose of the mission is to prepare monitoring and credit programs.