The volume of assets blocked in Switzerland from Russian sanctions has not increased.
At present, the sum of assets blocked in Swiss bank accounts amounts to 6.3 billion francs ($6.31 billion), which was reported by Ambassador Erwin Bollinger, head of the Bilateral Economic Relations Division at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), to the media in Bern on Thursday (in German). In addition, eleven properties are blocked.
The value reported yesterday is less than the 7.5 billion francs reported at the beginning of April. This is because some of the funds that were blocked by the banks as a precautionary measure pending clarification have since been released.
«The amount of blocked assets is not a gauge of how effectively the sanctions are being implemented», and is always just a snapshot and the value can fluctuate in either direction, he added.
Updated Numbers
Since April 7, 2.2 billion francs had been newly reported while 3.4 billion francs blocked as a precaution, have been released. The banks would act very proactively until clarification was possible, Bollinger explained.
In addition, the sanctions pact also contains several other important instruments, such as export restrictions and restrictions on payment transactions.
