Ukraine’s plans to seize up to $ 500 billion (£ 418 billion) in frozen Russian assets to fund the country’s recovery have met with strong resistance from Switzerland, the host of a two-day international recovery conference in Ukraine.
Swiss President Ignazio Cassis rejected the plan, saying the protection of property rights was fundamental in a liberal democracy. At a closing press conference, he stressed the grave scruples of some leaders that proposals for the confiscation of Russian property will set a dangerous precedent and will need specific legal justification.
“The right to property, the right to property is a fundamental right, a human right,” he told Lugano, adding that these rights could be violated, as they did during the pandemic, but only as long as there was a legal basis. .
He added: “You have to ensure that the citizens are protected against the power of the state. This is what we call liberal democracies.”
Switzerland is one of many countries with strict banking secrecy laws that is not enthusiastic about confiscating private property for political purposes.
The idea has won the endorsement, in principle, of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss.
Cassis said it was legitimate to freeze assets to clarify their ownership and whether there was any causal relationship to the war or to a crime that had been committed, but the principle of proportionality under international law should also be considered.
“We need to pay more attention to the fundamental right of people, because now we can make a decision, which is perfect for the situation in Ukraine, but we create the possibility of making the same decision in many other possibilities and you give a lot more power in the states, away from the citizen, ”he said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Smihal acknowledged that it was only the beginning of a discussion, but refused to back down on an idea he repeatedly promoted during the conference. “We propose to find a formula to create national and international legislation for the possibility of confiscation of frozen goods in case of unprovoked aggression, which will be rules,” he said.
“We, as a country, which is under this unprovoked aggression, will speak very loudly about this possibility because we understand that an aggressor who kills our people, destroys our infrastructure, our schools, our hospitals should pay for it. “.
He claimed that between $ 300 million and $ 500 million in Russian assets had been frozen worldwide.
In Switzerland, Cassis has stalled on the issue in parliament and has been pressured by the Social Democrats to introduce laws that allow for the confiscation of property.
In April, the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (SECO) announced that it had frozen 9.7 billion Swiss francs (8.4 billion pounds) of Russian assets, but since then part of it has been released. that money. One issue discussed is the extent to which family members of a sanctioned oligarch can retain ownership in Switzerland.
In March, the industry body representing Swiss banks, the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), published a study estimating that there were between 150,000 and 200,000 million francs in accounts for Russian citizens. At the end of last year, the total cash that Swiss banks had on behalf of customers was 7.879 billion francs, more than half of which was foreign wealth, according to the SBA.
Individual property rights are enshrined in Article 26 of the Swiss Constitution and “any limitation of fundamental rights must be justified by the public interest.”