Swiss ministry says 11 appeals filed against Russia sanctions
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Switzerland has received 11 requests by individuals or companies asking to be removed from the list of sanctions, the economics ministry has said.
One person has since been removed from the list, while the other ten requests are still being processed, the ministry told the Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS on Friday.
One person was removed after having previously been withdrawn from the European Union (EU)’s list, confirmed the ministry, which is responsible for managing the Swiss implementation of sanctions.
The legal basis therefore no longer existed to keep the individual on the blacklist, the ministry said. It did not name the person.
+ Could Russia’s frozen foreign reserves be used to rebuild Ukraine
This case may not remain an isolated one: earlier this week, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) annulled the sanctions against two Russian oligarchs, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven. These two shareholders in the Alfa Group conglomerate – which includes Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s leading banks – are also on the Swiss list.
However, as the ECJ still has to rule on a second aspect of this case, the cancellation of the sanctions is for now only partial and has not yet come into force.
Time-consuming
A total of 1,703 people and 421 companies are on Switzerland’s sanctions list against Russia, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Individuals and firms can submit a request to the economics ministry to be removed.
Processing such requests is legally complex and time-consuming, and generally takes several months, the ministry says.
Translated from French by DeepL/dos
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