The Federal Council of Switzerland joined the 14th package of EU sanctions against Russia. Among the measures taken, the country banned banks from using some messaging systems for payment transactions that are alternatives to SWIFT.
As it is said in a Swiss government press release, the new measures will come into effect on October 17. The sanctions will affect the energy, trade and financial sectors, as well as legal issues related to the protection of the rights of Swiss individuals and companies.
Sanction measures in the financial sector will create various legal grounds for banning transactions with the Russian Federation. One of them concerns organizations that offer cryptocurrency services and facilitate transactions to support the Russian defense industry. The purpose of these sanctions is to block Russia’s money flows to finance its defense industry.
The EU has banned intellectual property offices from accepting new applications for registration of trademarks, patents, etc. from Russian individuals and legal entities. This is due to the fact that the Russian government and Russian courts have taken measures to illegally deprive owners of intellectual property rights originating from EU member states of their protection in Russia.
However, the Swiss Federal Council decided not to take this measure, but to continue monitoring the situation. According to the representatives of the government, the situation with Swiss companies is different in that until now no violations of intellectual property rights have been committed by Russia against the companies.
We remind you that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is considering adding Russia to the blacklist. The decision will be made next week at a meeting of the FATF internal body.
