BLICK: Confiscation of Russian Sovereign Assets in Switzerland: Only with Solid Legal Basis and no Impact on Financial Stability

Switzerland is reviewing the options to confiscate Russia assets. There are ca 7 billion of Russian government assets in Switzerland. Politicians would welcome their seizure.
But officials and law and financial experts oppose. Switzerland has no legal basis for the confiscation of foreign government assets, ie. assets of another sovereign state. As in the EU, no solution can be found in Switzerland for such an endeavor.
Finally, the country of banking is afraid for its financial stability. A precedent like the confiscation of sovereign assets may trigger adverse consequences for the Swiss banking industry – which had hard times recently and has seen its size shrinking with detrimental effects for the Swiss financial and economic stability. The costs of confiscating the Russian 7 billion will be much higher in total and be charged to the Swiss taxpayers (bank run, avoidance of Swiss banks, higher debt risk premium, interest rate hike, exchange rate losses, higher taxes …)