Can you tell us more about Swiss neutrality in the context of Russia/Ukraine? All I've heard is that the Swiss are blocking Germany from supplying Gepard 35mm ammunition to Ukraine. Does this mean that the Swiss favor Russia?
> Neutral Switzerland has mirrored nearly all the sanctions that the European Union imposed on Russia over its military intervention in Ukraine.
Other countries located further East or in the South have decided not to mirror EU's or the West's (more generally) sanctions on Russia, they effectively remained neutral to this conflict. Switzerland has not done that.
On a more general note, Switzerland's "neutrality" is only a marketing thing at this point, the fate of Wegelin & Co [2] and the subsequent changes in how the Swiss banks handle some of their clients (who happen to hold US citizenship) can attest to that. The "most" neutral countries right now most probably can be found in the Gulf, the UAE (and Dubai) first among them. That's why the recent prisoner exchange involving Viktor Bout and that WNBA player took place in there, and not in Geneva or Zurich.
I think it’s expected that the prisoner exchange would happen in a place to which both involved countries can fly. AFAIK Russian planes are banned from the European airspace.
It turns out that banking secrecy means nothing de facto when you cannot maintain your neutrality, i.e. when you do not have enough levers at your disposal as to not allow foreign entities to directly interfere in your affairs as a country (in your banking industry, in this case).
