President Vladimir Putin’s Russia repeatedly demanded the creation of a new European security architecture before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow wanted NATO expansion frozen, and perhaps even reversed. Russia, it said, must win new security guarantees from its Western rivals and be central to a new understanding of power on the continent. The Kremlin’s demands were rejected by NATO leaders, and Moscow subsequently rolled the dice with its disastrous assault on Ukraine.
The two-year-old war has certainly redrawn the European geopolitical map, though not to the Kremlin’s benefit. Sweden and Finland have joined NATO, Western powers have embarked on a major sanctions offensive against Russia, and Ukraine and Moldova have embarked on the long road to European Union membership. Stress fractures have emerged, but the Western bloc has proven more resilient than Moscow would have hoped.
Even in Europe’s most fiercely neutral nation, the effect of the war is being felt.
GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Switzerland is bucking centuries of non-alignment by adopting EU sanctions on Russia and approving the re-export of some Swiss weapons and munitions to Ukraine via third parties—though Bern has refused to provide arms to Kyiv directly.
Pressure is even growing in parliament for the government to sign up to transatlantic proposals to seize frozen Russian assets and hand them to Ukraine, a step that would contrast with the country’s traditional and lucrative role as a center for discrete—and at times illicit—financial dealings.
Such a move may even imperil Putin’s own fortune, at least some of which is alleged to have been stored in or moved through Switzerland under the names of allies.
Last month, the upper house of the Swiss parliament voted 21-19 in favor of several motions—passed by the lower house late last year—that will allow the government to begin forming a legal basis for the use of frozen aggressor-state assets to pay for reparations in victimized countries.
“The facts are very clear indeed,” Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told the upper house. “Russia has seriously violated international law. It must therefore repair the damage caused. International discussions are underway regarding compensation mechanisms and Switzerland is participating with its knowledge, its skills and all its history in this area.”
Source:https://www.newsweek.com/putin-secret-fortune-risk-neutral-country-sanctions-switzerland-1889741
