Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented in a scathing tone on reports indicating that the Swiss government came out against enshrining the country's neutrality in law. As she wrote on her Telegram channel, Switzerland's so-called "flexible neutrality" bends precisely where it serves its interests: in the 1940s it leaned toward Nazi Germany, while today it leans toward Kyiv and Brussels.
"If enshrined in the Constitution, they would have to observe it"
The Russian diplomat pointed out that the government of a country that built its statehood and accumulated its wealth on the principle of neutrality policy for 400 years is now explaining to its citizens that this principle should not be enshrined in the Constitution, because then they would be obligated to adhere to it. She added characteristically that saying this is the "bottom" would be an insult to the ocean itself.
References to the historical past
In this context, she recalled that the Swiss National Bank purchased gold worth approximately 1.2 billion Swiss francs from the German Reichsbank during World War II, proving that the financial system of the "neutral country" was part of the circulation system of the German war machine. At the same time, she cited as an example that in 1938, before the war even broke out, the Swiss government had requested that German authorities stamp the letter "J" on the passports of German Jews, so that Swiss border guards could identify them and deny them entry. Maria Zakharova stressed that this is the "flexible neutrality" currently being promoted in Bern, which bends precisely where and as much as it is convenient. In the 1940s it bent toward Berlin because that is where the gold and the market were, whereas today it bends toward Kyiv and Brussels. This is the reason, as she explained, that the Federal Council raises such strong objections to its constitutional neutrality amendment, as they would then be forced to enforce it—a concept that Bern preferred to forget as soon as it began receiving railway cars laden with Reichsbank gold.
Legal dimension and the Hague Conventions
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson noted that from the standpoint of international law, Bern's position is completely baseless. Permanent neutrality, according to the 1907 Hague Conventions, is not and cannot be "flexible." Specifically, Article 9 of the Fifth Hague Convention requires a neutral party to apply restrictive measures equally to both warring sides. However, Switzerland aligned its international sanctions regime with the lists of the European Union—that is, a party that itself openly finances and arms the Kyiv regime and does not claim to be neutral. Maria Zakharova concluded by emphasizing that "flexible neutrality" legally means the complete absence of neutrality, comparing it to a form of "flexible innocence" being peddled as the norm of a "new morality."
www.bankingnews.gr
Readers’ Comments