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Swiss President Ignazio Cassis addresses a news conference after a meeting of the Swiss government’s Bundesrat in Bern, Switzerland February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

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  • Neutral Switzerland adopts EU sanctions
  • Freezing of Russian assets “very likely” – Cassis
  • Switzerland ready to help with the flow of refugees

GENEVA, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said on Sunday it was “very likely” neutral Switzerland would follow the European Union (EU) on Monday in sanctioning Russia and freezing Russian assets in the country alpine.

Cassis, asked on French-language Swiss public television RTS, said the seven-member Federal Council would meet on Monday and consider recommendations from the finance and economy departments.

When asked if Switzerland – a major financial center and commodity trading hub – would follow the EU in freezing Russian assets, he replied: “It is very likely that the government will decide to do so. tomorrow, but I can’t anticipate the decisions that haven’t been made yet.”

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Cassis said Switzerland’s neutrality must be preserved and that it was ready to offer its good diplomatic offices if talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the Belarusian border failed, for example by reaching an armistice.

“That doesn’t stop us from calling a spade a spade,” he said.

Switzerland has walked a tortuous line between solidarity with the West and maintaining its traditional neutrality which the government says could make it a potential mediator.

But he faces growing pressure to clearly side with the West against Moscow and adopt punitive European Union sanctions. Until now, the government had only said that it would not let Switzerland be used as a platform to circumvent EU sanctions.

In the biggest peace march in decades, around 20,000 people demonstrated in the capital Bern on Saturday in support of Ukraine, with some booing the government for its cautious policies.

Cassis said on Sunday that Ukrainians fleeing the conflict would be welcome “for a transition period, which we hope will be as short as possible”.

Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said separately that Switzerland stands ready to welcome those in need of protection and also to support affected neighboring countries. “We won’t leave people hanging,” she said.

The Swiss government last week amended its watch list to include 363 people and four companies that the EU had placed on its sanctions list to punish Moscow. Read more

Russians held nearly 10.4 billion Swiss francs ($11.24 billion) in Switzerland in 2020, according to data from the Swiss National Bank.

($1 = 0.9252 Swiss francs)

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Additional reporting by Michael Shields; edited by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Diane Craft

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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