There is a hackneyed joke among Swiss bankers hinting at the corruption and venality of the country with which they are dealing at the moment.. Its current version as of April 2022 is as follows: “Where is the capital of Russia? ”, quoted by FT author Sam Jones Swissinfo. ch.

Two months after the start of Vladimir Putin's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, all attempts to find traces of Russian treasures in Switzerland have so far ended in nothing.. Although neutral Switzerland, perhaps more than any other country in the world, has been considered in recent years a real treasure trove of Putin’s kleptocracy.

But even after Berne mirrored all the sanctions implemented by the US and the EU against Russian oligarchs (and there are already about 900 people on this list around the world), in Switzerland, Russian assets are currently frozen for only $ 8 billion.

For comparison, on the island of Jersey (where it is, in general? ) frozen $7 billion of assets linked to Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich alone. What does this fact say to the Swiss government Probably about the fact that the implementation of such a large-scale set of sanctions is a work that has a beginning, but does not and cannot have an end..

“Effectively controlling such assets is a task of the highest order,” said Erwin Bollinger, a senior official at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO, a division of the Ministry of Economy, responsible for sanctions), at a briefing in March 2022.. He added later, however, that the total amount of such assets is likely to grow.. Banks are now working hard to try and trace the assets and fortunes of their customers..

In order to somehow fit the low official figure of seized sanctions funds into the general context, the Swiss Banking Association (Schweizerische Bankiervereinigung SBVg) recently estimated that in total, about 150-200 billion Swiss francs (155-207 billion dollars) of Russian money are stored in Swiss banks.

So that? Ahead of us are still waiting, as they say, large \? It seems that very few Swiss bankers think and count on it.. Of course, the largest international banking houses are in a hurry to get into the general system as soon as possible and apply sanctions to their work in the most strict interpretation of them.. They say, and here they are right, that you should not turn a blind eye to the money of Russian clients now, in order to run the risk of colliding with the American financial and tax authorities later..

In February and March 2022, a special working group of UBS held conference calls literally twice a day, exchanging information on the progress of sanctions against their client base.. More secretive private banks are far less afraid of Washington's wrath. But they say they froze everything they could.

The problem, as one Genevan banker said at a recent private party, is twofold.. First, assets are often held not directly in the names of sanctioned clients.. And when the money is kept by family members, then there are legal difficulties associated with this fact.. Secondly, this banker said after the eighth prosecco, money is very rarely physically stored in Switzerland itself..

In Zurich, another banker explained to us that “we ourselves have been advising our clients for years not to use Swiss trusts, not for political reasons at all, but simply because other trusts are easier to use.”. And that's why the money is "

The Russian oligarchy, especially those at risk, had eight years to prepare a “Plan B” after the invasion of Crimea.. Highly paid Swiss lawyers and bankers in the service of the Russian rich, who have long fallen in love with Geneva and Zurich as their financial settlement centers, all this time did not sit idly by, helping them to transfer “everything acquired by overwork” to the name of relatives, to transfer these assets into the hands of.

When Putin only began to concentrate his troops on the borders of Ukraine, this process accelerated noticeably. In early February, the world, still somewhat skeptical of US intelligence claims that Putin was about to attack his neighbor, could have been convinced that this was not a hype or a fake, simply by using such an intelligence sign as documents, a shaft.

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And where did this shaft go? \! - joked my interlocutor, a Genevan banker, opening the third bottle of wine. Swiss banks, of course, have a wealth of such intelligence.. But they remain silent, like a fish on ice.. They are irrelevant to law enforcement due to the extremely strict bank secrecy laws that are still in place and in force in Switzerland, a matter of national pride..

If there is no clear evidence or suspicion pointing to the fact of a possible criminal act, Swiss bankers will protect the banking secrecy of their clients at almost any cost and to the last.

Well, what about the assets that remain in the possession of Swiss banks, and which are provably related directly to those who are sanctioned In fact, this is so, a trifle ringing in the pocket of the oligarchs. At best, this is a budget, which, of course, should be enough for a season in Gstaad, for shopping at a Piaget boutique or for a detox at Clinique La Prairie.

And it is not surprising that so far the most high-profile asset arrested in Switzerland has been a three-bedroom apartment with a golf course, owned by Petr Aven. But this, with all the desire, does not pull on the oligarchic Eldorado.

However, lines of disagreement towards the war have emerged among the Russian economic elite.. And the oligarchs, especially those who became wealthy before Vladimir Putin came to power, began to cautiously speak out against it, writes the Washington Post.. Most of them focus on their own troubles. Western sanctions lowered the "

" It’s a disaster,” an unnamed Russian businessman, who was among the richest Russians invited to meet with Putin on the day the invasion began, told the publication..