Switzerland refused to join EU anti-Russian sanctions
Switzerland has nothing to do with the European Union sanctions that were imposed against the Russian Federation.
Swiss Ambassador to Moscow Yves Rossier spoke about this in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets.
“We did not join the EU sanctions regarding Ukraine. We have nothing to do with them. This is not a manifestation of neutrality, it’s just that we always make independent decisions on whether to impose sanctions or not, we do not follow automatically,” Rossier said.
According to him, Switzerland introduced its own restrictions specifically on Crimea, since it does not recognize its annexation to Russia. Swiss companies should not operate in Crimea, nor should they invest in the peninsula, the diplomat explained.
“Second: we did not join the EU sanctions, so Russian counter-sanctions were not imposed against us - but at the same time we have monitoring to exclude the possibility of using Swiss territory to circumvent sanctions or counter-sanctions. For example, someone under financial sanctions is required to close an account in, say, London or Berlin - that person can still keep their account in Switzerland, but cannot transfer all the money into it from accounts that are closed in another European country,” the ambassador added.
He also said that as a member of the Schengen Agreement, Switzerland is not obliged to issue a Schengen visa to people subject to sanctions.
“But we can give them our own Swiss national visa to visit our territory. On this point, there were dissatisfied people on both sides - both in Russia and in the EU, which means everything is fine, we really took a neutral position,” Rossier summed up.
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