Freezing Russian assets is legal - Swiss court

24 Jan, 2008 20:33 / Updated 16 years ago

Switzerland's Supreme Court has ruled prosecutors did have legal grounds to freeze assets belonging to Russia's Central Bank in Geneva. The accounts were frozen in May over an ongoing legal dispute between the Russian government and a Geneva-based trading

The company says Moscow owes it millions of euros for failing to pay for goods delivered to the country as part of an oil-for-food programme. Since 1993, the firm has repeatedly applied for seizure of Russian overseas property. The latest attempt early in January resulted in assets belonging to Russia's Central Bank and RIA Novosti news agency in France being frozen.