An interesting article on Switzerland and the future of their “neutrality” in Newsweek this week. On the plus side, Switzerland has largely gone along with EU sanctions on Russia over their illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine:
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.
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A 2023 poll found that 55 percent of Swiss respondents—a record-high number—support moving towards "closer ties" with NATO, a three-point jump from 2022 and a 10-point increase from 2021 prior to Russia's invasion.
A direct Russian attack, President of the Swiss Confederation and Minister of Defense Viola Amherd said this week, would mark the end of the country's neutral era.
It is on the sanctions front that Switzerland could perhaps play the biggest role. The country has frozen some $8.81 billion in assets belonging to Russians since the beginning of the war, the government said in December. That is but a fraction of the total wealth held by Russians in Switzerland, estimated by the Swiss Bankers Association to be worth more than $164 billion.
OTOH, the populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) submitted petitions Friday with 130,000 signatures, which is more than enough to place an initiative for a popular referendum on their proposed "neutrality initiative," which would end Bern's involvement in international sanctions on Russia entirely and return Switzerland to a policy of strict neutrality and isolation from the rest of Europe.
Still, the ground appears fertile for more pro-Kyiv action. A 2023 survey of Swiss voters found 91 percent of respondents supported continued neutrality, though 75 percent believed the current sanctions against Russia were compatible with the traditional stance.
Let’s hope Swiss voters end up rejecting this blatantly pro-Moscow initiative, and the government finds a way to start freezing and seizing more of that secret stockpile of financial assets Putin and his cronies have squirrelled away in hidden Swiss bank accounts.