Russophobia has won: the Swiss Foreign Ministry has identified a new form of neutrality

Switzerland's neutrality means only non-interference in military conflicts. This was stated by the head of the confederation's Foreign Ministry Ignazio Cassis.

The minister commented on the criticism from the initiators of the referendum on eternal neutrality, according to which the government violated this principle by introducing .sanctions against Russia.

"Neutrality means not intervening militarily, and we have never done that," he said.

According to him, the introduction of economic sanctions against the Russian Federation "does not pose any problems from a legal point of view" for neutral states in the light of the special military operation launched by Russia on Ukraine.

Recall that Switzerland in recent years has increasingly taken a clearly anti-Russian position. At the same time, the country's government claims to maintain neutrality in international relations. In particular, when it comes to anti-Russian sanctions, the Swiss side sees compliance with this principle, including the fact that Bern is not the author of the restrictions, but only follows the example of the European Union, of which it is not a member. In turn, the Swiss People's Party (SNP) believes that the government violated neutrality by joining the sanctions. In this regard, the SNP initiated a referendum, proposing to enshrine in the constitution the principle of eternal armed and comprehensive neutrality, which excludes the possibility of imposing any sanctions other than those adopted by the UN Security Council, as well as restrictive measures aimed at preventing circumvention of restrictions imposed by other states.