"... as well as all 367 individuals sanctioned last week by the European Union. Switzerland said it was departing from its usual policy of neutrality because of 'the unprecedented military attack by Russia on a sovereign European state,' but expressed a willingness to help mediate in the conflict."
From "Switzerland says it will freeze Russian assets, setting aside a tradition of neutrality" (NYT).
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68 comments:
Be nice to know the dollar amount Putin has in his Swiss bank accounts.
The Swiss fucked themselves a long time ago when they kowtowed to the IRS.
Now even the Germans are beginning to make better watches...
Even though I sort of get it, this action does note bode well for the future. If the Swiss are this malleable, one can imagine what may happen if enough states/countries get together to complain about, say, a conservative taking action they don't approve of. I believe the Swiss maintained their independence during WW2, and is what going on in Ukraine even comparable (at this point)?
"Unprecedented?"
Switzerland decides not to be the silent accomplice. Maybe he can technically 'win' in Ukraine, but it's looking more and more like Putin has already lost.
Putin had better start scanning his surroundings for polonium.
$20 says this will be walked back after a huge asset withdrawal from billionaires/mega rich in a variety of countries that could potentially pose this risk.
Nothing makes people freak out more and withdrawal funds than the sudden uncertainty you'll be able to access your funds in the future.
Bitcoin fixes this.
A first step, Switzerland.
Maybe you could take a look at the Arafat and Maduro accounts, too....
This is the Switzerland that was neutral about Hitler. Wow.
Switzerland said it was departing from its usual policy of neutrality because of 'the unprecedented military attack by Russia on a sovereign European state,'
I think the precedent was, um, Hitler invading Poland. If you're looking for a European state that's being invaded by somebody. I'm not saying Putin is not a shit, I'm just saying it's happened before.
I feel like Russia's invaded people before, too. Is this really the first time in European history that anybody invaded anybody?
That is some kind of fuck you when you can't even hide your money in Switzerland anymore.
Putin: "I am not worse than Stalin! Or Hitler! Come on!"
So far Althouse is holding steady with cruel neutrality but I'll bet you she says some mean shit about Putin before the week is up.
Biden is still home, lights out in Delaware? wtf
Until the United States opens up energy production and there are real sanctions put on Russian energy exports this is all kabuki.
This war ends when the Democrats and the Greens stop sabotaging US energy independence.
If Trump was president this war never happened because Russian wouldn't have enough money.
That will produce a huge run on Swiss banks by other-than-Russians, say to Cayman Islands.
The Swiss are tougher than the US on Russia.
I recommend an article about the Ukraine situation, titled The Land Where History Died, written by David Stockman and published today on Unz. (The "land where history died" is the USA.)
Excerpts:
.... Today’s hot war eruption in Ukraine would absolutely not be happening save for the violent coup of February 2014 that overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected pro-Russian President; and which coup was funded, organized and choreographed by Washington-based neocons, busy-bodies and arms merchants ....
... Washington’s blunderbuss intervention in support of the Maidan putsch put the kibosh on stable governance in Kiev and friendly relations with Ukraine’s historic neighbor and suzerain, Russia. That’s because while the 2010 election reflected the stark divisions of the Ukrainian electorate it still produced a government that was reasonably acceptable to most of the electorate, and one which proceeded to work toward new arrangements with both Ukraine’s EU neighbors to the west and Russia to the east. ...
... that tolerable governing balance was abruptly and unilaterally cancelled by Washington’s writ, especially when it then almost instantly embraced and recognized an ad hoc, anti-Russian government which came from the extreme right side of the political/ethnic spectrum.
... Ukraine received only minor assistance from the west prior to 2014, but upwards of $15 billion since then. That included nearly $3 billion of military aid from the US, $6 billion of development and economic aid from Western donors, $3 billion of subsidized Ex-Im Bank funding from the US and $3 billion of other humanitarian aid. The effect was to turn Ukraine into a ward of Washington —- a new post-coup fact on the ground that was blatantly obvious to Moscow.
.... Washington’s massive political and financial support for the Maidan uprising on the streets of Kiev, and then nearly instantaneous recognition of the resulting putsch as the official government of the Ukraine was a frontal assault on the nation’s sovereignty.
.... Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs ... and her subordinates became more brazen in favoring the anti‐Yanukovych demonstrators. Nuland noted in a speech to the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation in December 2013, that she had traveled to Ukraine three times in the weeks following the start of the demonstrations. Visiting the Maidan on December 5, she famously handed out cookies to demonstrators and expressed support for their cause.
... Victoria Nuland didn’t merely tell some undercover operatives to buy ads on Ukrainian social media, as Russia was accused of doing during the 2016 US election. To the contrary, she actually picked Yanukovych’s successor and the entire cabinet!
And we know this from a hacked phone call between Nuland and the US ambassador in Kiev. In discussing who should lead the Washington-installed government, Nuland made clear who the next prime minister would be and who he should be talking to for advice. ....
as KGB will Putin have the wiles of Jason Bourne as far as Swiss accounts go?
Particularly cruel after every luxury watch in Russia got scooped up when the ruble was devalued. When the paper's no good, you look for any store of value you can find.
If you stick around long enough, you get to see history repeat itself again and again. Putin seems to have chosen poorly and many will pay the price, perhaps even Putin himself. He has certainly bigged himself up in history's pages. I thought he was smarter and more clinical, but I got to be wrong about that like a lot of other people.
Events continue to unfold.
Remind me what they did with the Nazis?
Do they have air raid shelters in Zurich?
excellent.
It would interesting if the Swiss Banks revealed just how much money those Russians had in the bank. Wonder if that would open eyes in Russia.
Boy, you know you've *really* stepped in it when the Swiss --- the Swiss! --- freeze your overseas accounts. Heck, they're doing something they didn't to the Nazis during WWII.
Nice going Vlad, making the Swiss non-neutral for the first time in a very long time.
Neutral Althouse hardest hit.
It seems strange that Switzerland and Sweden remained officially neutral during WW II (while continuing to trade with Germany) but have decided to join the anti-Russia crowd now.
Jeez...even Switzerland is jumping in. They didn't even jump in against Hitler. Or Trump. (I get them mixed up).
Everyone is getting into the act. Everyone, that is, except...
>Facebook
>Google
>Twitter
>Instacrap
>Amazon
>Apple
>Microsoft (Bill Gates is too busy telling us what to eat, being the nutrition expert he is)
And as we all know, if I were to go on any of those platforms (with apologies to AAlthouse here on Blogger) and say that Biden is a member of a corrupt family who's been paid off by both Russia and Ukraine, that Fauci has been paid off by China, and that the entire media complex can go screw themselves, and that I believe the 2020 election was a fraud, the southern border should be closed to illegal migration waves, and that the vaccine mandate and shutdowns were a deliberate attempt to shut down our economy, I would be cut off, dumped, censored by all of these tech companies. And if I had been in Washington DC on Jan 6, coupled with the statements above, I'd be in jail now.
So, good of Switzerland to jump in and show themselves. I suppose our Tech Giants need to first get permission from their Chinese Masters before they could cut off Russia and that permission will never come. Beside, Russia is just invading a non-aggressive neighbor, killing thousands of civilians and causing untold damages to their cities, country, and infrastructure. It's not as if they were talking about the 2020 election.
To go with my previous comment, this is Elon Musk, stepping up on the other side from the rest of Tech Giants.
Elon Musk activates Starlink over Ukraine
Switzerland freezing Putin assets. Swiss neutrality. That’s cruel.
Hold the presses! A new headline: Google follows YouTube in cutting off ad revenue to Russian state media
Looks like Google now views them as being on a par with Conservatives. Russia could be in trouble now.
The Swiss are the original practitioners of Cruel Neutrality. So when you've lost the Swiss . . .
How to know you have fucked up, the Swiss who, other than when the French revolutionaries invaded their country, have been neutral for something like 400 plus years and two world wars have decided to take sides.
At least they are doing more than Brandon has.
Now this is amazing. The Swiss do business with any govt., and almost any kind of crook.
People are really pissed here.
There goes the Swiss banks reputation for being neutral. If I was Russian or chinese I'd put my money elsewhwere.
Germany had a long standing policy of not selling weapons to a country at war. That's been reversed and they're now sending 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 "Stinger" class surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. What's significant is this was done by a government led by the SDP, a party that has prided itself on dialog with Russia rather than confrontation and whose ex- Leader, Gerhard Schröder, is a friend of Putin who pushed through the Nord Stream gas pipe and has sat on the board on a number of major Russian companies (he was due to sit on Gazprom's board). Their major coalition partner are the Greens who have been the "peace" party in Germany.
The Norwegian government also had a similar ban on selling weapons to combatants. Yesterday, under pressure from public opinion, they agreed to deliver non-lethal military equipment. Today, again under pressure from public opinion, they decided to send 2000 anti-tank weapons to the Ukraine.
Finland, who has always been mindful of Russian interests, closed their airspace to Russian planes (they did this before the EU ban). They did this knowing that Russia would reciprocate causing Finnair to lose valuable routes over Russian airspace to Asia.
Similar things are happening in other countries. The EU, is actually buying 450 million worth of weapons and equipment to send to the Ukraine. I believe that is the first time the EU has bought weapons for any country.
In response to a US offer to help get out of the country, Zelensky said: “I need ammunition, not a ride”. That's going to go down in the history books, up there with, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat," and "Nuts" as one of the most effective war time phrases.
Switzerland could as easily be crushed by sanctions as any other country.
I'm not sure this idea of freezing the assets of individuals is so great. Is Russia going to freeze Hunter's assets? How will the Bug Guy pay for his ice cream?
I'm seeing this at 1241pm without benefit of others' comments.
I have Putin all along as a sort of tsar, not least because that's what Russians usually think they need. As such his policies would be like those of the tsars--autocracy (his), orthodoxy (back to square one there), and nationality (Great Russian).
Sheesh it's now 115--
I did NOT think Putin was so rash and impatient, bordering on nutso. If nothing else it demonstrates the fatal flaw of autocracy--that it is only as strong as the autocrat.
The Swiss tend to provoke a lot of fireworks, and I certainly enjoy talking about them. Right now I'll just suggest that they've run the cost/ben and nobody beats them at that.
It helps too that Putin doesn't have them surrounded . . .
In any case, I like Switzerland in theory and practice (mostly), and bully for them.
But...but...who will pay the wages of the crews of the mega-yachts? And the docking fees?
Those accounts are *active* and *vital*!!!
I’m glad to see a self-protecting country display this moral backbone.
I confess- I know little- un t’peu - about ant foreign policy. And yet- I have opinions.
That is really huge.
Either what's huge is that the corrupt people are no longer storing their money in Swiss banks, our else there's now a strong warning out that you can be corrupt, or militarily adventurous, but not both
Timothy Zahn wrote a short story years ago, where the idea was that world governments had gotten together and forced insurance companies to eliminate the "acts of war" exclusion from insurance policies, and the result was no more war, because bug business just couldn't afford the costs without that exclusion.
"Invade a country, lose your Swiss bank accounts" is about that level of powerful
And thus Switzerland passes into history . . . .
Unprecedented event that happened as recently as 2014 between the same two countries.
This is an unusual and important move by the Swiss.
Perhaps the Swiss no longer wish to pay the moral costs of "neutrality". Being the banker to dictators, terrorists, Nazis, and crime lords has to take its toll.
Neutral no longer!
That is not 'chopped liver', that is potentially ruinous for a bunch of Russian big-wigs. Good for the Swiss.
Jason said...
Bitcoin fixes this.
Bitcoin is gen 1. It costs way too much in gas fees to use this as currency.
The Solana/Etherium gen 2 chain is much more useful.
The gen 3 Cardano blockchain is the future of international finance. It already has massively higher transaction rates. The Hydra/IOHK upgrade will be out around June facilitating an order of magnitude higher transaction speeds. It is also built on a non-mutable functional programming language Plutus. I believe the institutionals will choose this over Solidity.
rcocean said...
There goes the Swiss banks reputation for being neutral. If I was Russian or chinese I'd put my money elsewhwere.
It really is quite amazing how shortsighted these institutions are.
I think they know that web 3.0 and the gen 2/3 blockchains are about to completely eliminate the current banking system.
It is going to be an interesting world where even the little people have access to what the Swiss Bank account pretended to be.
rhhardin said...
That will produce a huge run on Swiss banks by other-than-Russians, say to Cayman Islands.
Crypto.
Trump right as always. Putin genius to cast himself as a peacemaker, kinda like the Swiss.
As Narr noted, Switzerland isn't surrounded right now like it was during WWII. That kind of changes the calculations a little bit. And having gone through WWII who wants a resurgent great power deciding to do some invading in Europe?
As another thing Germany has decided it is time to rearm, and that's a massive change in their policy.
Mikey NTH said...
As Narr noted, Switzerland isn't surrounded right now like it was during WWII. That kind of changes the calculations a little bit.
Does that really matter when they're in nuke range?
Trump right as always. Putin genius to cast himself as a peacemaker, kinda like the Swiss.
OK Buddy. Put down the bong and back away slowly.
Nice and easy now. No one will get hurt the way.
Mike Sylwester said...
I recommend an article about the Ukraine situation, titled The Land Where History Died, written by David Stockman and published today on Unz. (The "land where history died" is the USA.)
Excerpts:
.... Today’s hot war eruption in Ukraine would absolutely not be happening save for the violent coup of February 2014 that overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected pro-Russian President; and which coup was funded, organized and choreographed by Washington-based neocons, busy-bodies and arms merchants ....
... Washington’s blunderbuss intervention in support of the Maidan putsch put the kibosh on stable governance in Kiev and friendly relations with Ukraine’s historic neighbor and suzerain, Russia. That’s because while the 2010 election reflected the stark divisions of the Ukrainian electorate it still produced a government that was reasonably acceptable to most of the electorate, and one which proceeded to work toward new arrangements with both Ukraine’s EU neighbors to the west and Russia to the east. ...
News flash: "neighbor" and "suzerain" don't go together.
Yes, the Obama Admin helped free the Ukrainian people from Russian slavery. This is not a bad thing.
yes, they replaced a corrupt pro-Russian gov't with a corrupt anti-Russian gov't.
The key part here is that by getting rid of the "pro-Russian" part they made the Ukraine, and the world, better places.
Russia is a shithole that has never, in its entire existence, had honest or decent government.
Russia is currently an expansionist dictatorship run by a thug who misses the USSR.
Neither Russia nor Putin has any "legitimate interests".
Putin is a permanent and active enemy of the US. So long as Putin is in charge, Russia will remain an enemy of the US.
Harming our enemies is a good thing
Russia is an active threat to its neighbors. Other than China, none of its neighbors are active threats to Russia, other than threats to their egos by not wanting to be Russian slaves any more.
Anything that rolls back Russia's ability to dominate or threaten its non-Chinese neighbors is an inherently good thing.
https://youtu.be/Ys2zTL-b3eE
Humbly submitted:
Peterson and a military guru named Kagan….
Listening to it now.
Hmmm...well there goes neutrality and the soundness of the swiss banking system. Sort of like Trudeau in canada destroyed their banking soundness.
I always expect Swiss-bashing, and usually find it from people with dorm-room and TV documentary level knowledge of Switzerland's place and role in the modern world.
I'm going to catch up to some news and come back later. I'll just point out that the image of fat Swiss swilling their way blithely through WWII is a bad joke, pushed by cranks at both ends of the spectrum then and now.
"Crypto."
Trudeau's 'emergency' showed that crypto is no safe haven from government control, in fact they should probably drop "crypto" as in 'hidden,' from the name.
"We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side
I’ve learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side"
From the outset of WW2, the Swiss Army was totally mobilized. All military aged men were assigned to army units for the defense of their country. Before the war, there were many people who were active in their support of the Nazi party of Switzerland. They were watched closely by Swiss patriots. Prior to the outbreak of the war, many Swiss citizens and officials worked clandestinely to provide escape and shelter to various nationals coming over the Swiss border illegally.
Today all military aged men have an army weapon in their house along with sealed ammunition clips. Military service and training are required as well as active membership and training annually in army reserve forces up to age 55 (I think). All rail and road bridges and tunnels of military use are mined and can be demolished given the order.
The Swiss air force trains constantly. There are air bases within mountains with doors leading to highways that are instantly converted to runways. Also, there are artillery installations cleverly hidden in mountainsides with doors that can be opened when needed.
You might be interested in reading "La Place de la Concorde Suisse" by John McPhee. I lived in CH off and on during the 1980s and have seen this myself. I have friends who, while young, lived in CH during WW2. Historically, Swiss were mercenaries and sometimes were compelled to fight compatriots in battle. That's why they quit being mercenaries with one exception; they serve as Swiss Guards for the Holy See (interesting because many Swiss are protestants).
Ukrainians appear to be just as tough as the Swiss. Putin has made a grave error.
Thanks, farmgirl.
What Greg the Class Traitor said.
Firing Line used the Second Brandenburg as its bumper music. Jordan Peterson is using the Third. Coincidence?
Be nice to know the dollar amount Putin has in his Swiss bank accounts ...
so what is the minimum deposit needed?
Minimum Balances at Swiss Bank Account : Generally, the Swiss banks expect you to deposit at least 10,000 Swiss francs (which is equivalent to $9,000 or EUR 6,800 or £6,300) within a month of opening a Swiss bank account and maintain this balance for as long as you keep the bank account
========
soon they will be asking to see photo ID and vaccine passport
Ampersand said...
Do they have air raid shelters in Zurich?
_______________________
Oh Lordy, yes. Switzerland's attitude towards nuclear attack is “If it's possible to survive it, we shall.” EVERY building is built with blast and fallout shelters, and the shelters are kept stocked.
Hubert the Infant said...
It seems strange that Switzerland and Sweden remained officially neutral during WW II (while continuing to trade with Germany) but have decided to join the anti-Russia crowd now.
____________________
Ask yourself ‘What would have happened if they had done otherwise?’, and suddenly it seems not only unsurprising, but the only sensible choice.
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