NZZ am Sonntag: The authorities of Bern blocked the property owned by Aven

The authorities of the Swiss canton of Bern have blocked the possibility of selling or pledging real estate belonging to a Russian businessman, co-owner of the Alfa Group consortium, Petr Aven, who was previously included in the EU and Swiss sanctions lists due to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, NZZ am Sonntag reports. .

According to the publication, Aven owns an apartment in the Les Hauts de Gstaad hotel complex in the Saanenmeser resort in the canton of Bern, RIA Novosti reports.

Earlier, on March 18, it became known that the Italian Financial Guard arrested a residential real estate complex owned by Alexei Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Severstal. We are talking about buildings located in the city of Olbia on the island of Sardinia.

And before that, US President Joe Biden warned that the US Department of Justice was creating a special group to prosecute large Russian entrepreneurs and hunt for their assets.

Recall that on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), and on February 24 he made an emergency appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.”

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

Thus, in particular, Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Novikombank, FC Otkritie and Sovcombank, and for a number of state-owned companies it was difficult to attract foreign capital.

Later, the EU countries and the United States agreed to disconnect Russian banks that fell under sanctions from the international system of interbank transactions and information exchange SWIFT. In addition, it was decided to freeze the assets of the Bank of Russia, which will create difficulties for its use of international reserves. EU countries also pledged to take steps to limit the sale of citizenship — the so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government to become citizens of EU states and gain access to their financial systems. In addition, the European Union, the United States, Canada and a number of other countries have closed the sky for Russian aircraft.

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