US ambassador praises Swiss efforts to freeze Russian money

The US ambassador to Switzerland has praised the “immense progress” made by Switzerland in the search for Russian funds in Swiss banks.

The United States is very pleased with the efforts Switzerland has made so far to find the funds of Russians sanctioned after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Scott Miller said in an interview with the newspaper Le Temps published on Wednesday.

“We respect Switzerland’s role in the sanctions,” he said. “It is, after all, a sanctions package of a size and scope that, frankly, the world has never seen before.”

Switzerland had blocked Russian funds of CHF6.3 billion ($6.5 billion) by May 12, according to Erwin Bollinger, head of the Bilateral Economic Relations Division at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). At the beginning of April this amount had stood at CHF7.5 billion, but CHF3.4 billion, which had been frozen too quickly, had been returned. Another CHF2.2 billion were found between these two dates.

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