Almost $8 billion worth of Russian assets were frozen in Switzerland

Swiss Ministry of Economy: the amount of frozen Russian assets is almost $8 billion

The Swiss Ministry of Economy reported that at the end of February 2022 Russian assets worth $7.94 billion were frozen in the country.

"As of November 25, 2022, assets frozen in Switzerland amount to 7.5 billion francs ($7.94 billion)," reads a document published on the ministry's website.

To this amount is also added 15 properties of individuals or legal entities, which are subject to sanctions, writes "Gazeta.Ru".

The Ministry specifies that the owners of the assets can not dispose of them. However, the amount of frozen assets may increase or decrease if new people are added to or leave the sanctions list.

Earlier in the day, The Wall Street Journal wrote that the European Union acknowledged the impossibility of confiscating the frozen assets of the Central Bank of Russia due to the international principle of state immunity. The issue in question is $300 billion of the Russian regulator's reserves.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin called the West's freezing of Russia's currency reserves a theft, while Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that by freezing these assets, Western countries launched an economic war against Russia.

In mid-November, the Politico newspaper reported that the European Union had frozen Russian assets worth €68 billion. According to an internal document of the European Commission, most of them are located in Belgium - €50 billion.