Discours et allocutions de l`Ambassadeur

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me begin by thanking the Security Policy Forum of the University of St. Gallen for kindly inviting me to speak at this esteemed academic institution, which is, not to exaggerate, an alma-mater of high-profile economists and politicians. I was interested to discover that the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein Hans-Adam II is one of your graduates. Moreover, the recently appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Liechtenstein Katrin Eggenberger obtained her PhD here.

I consider students to be the most challenging audience to address, on the one hand, due to your inquisitive minds and attention to even tiniest details. And the most interesting one, on the other hand, because future development of our world depends on how you see it.

Today, I would like to tell you how we see and assess current transformations in the world. And, of course, I’ll also discuss the relations between Russia and Switzerland.

Before starting my actual speech, I’d like to highlight that, in my opinion, pursuing mutual understanding, being able to respect partners’ interests as well as being ready to seek compromise on most challenging issues is crucial for both interpersonal and interstate communication. In order to achieve these goals, hearing and listening are indispensable. Nowadays, unfortunately, facts are often lost in the sea of their incorrect or sometimes mendacious interpretation. At first glance, the essence seems to be the same, but it is distorted to the exact opposite.  I think that learning to differentiate between facts and their interpretation, and, of course, being honest, above all, with yourself are the main goals for the modern youth. I hope that you’ll get the message that I’m trying to convey to you.

It is obvious to everyone that we’re living in the times of drastic changes in political landscape.  Changes that are happening so fast that some of our Western partners, due to the inertia of thinking, keep relying on old stereotypes and try to blame us for some “revanchist sentiments” thus justifying frankly aggressive actions against our country.  As a result, nonacceptance of the reality along with an attempt to maintain the global hegemony after the dissolution of the Soviet Union – hence the end of the bipolar world – leads to an inevitable conflict. Surely, we have to take into consideration the times we live in. Modern wars are not limited to infantry, tank and airplane battles. Nowadays battles are hybrid; the wars are held in economic, information and cyberspace environment.

Development of new economic power centers and political influence associated with them are the objective reality of today. The voice of the developing world demanding its wants and needs is getting stronger. Shaping new polycentric world implies increased responsibility of the international community and renunciation of archaic philosophy of power competition and turf wars. The faster we learn to respect each other’s interests and establish constructive cooperation, the faster our world will become balanced and safe.

It is important to understand that Russia cannot ignore the attempts to undermine its vital interests. And we, first and foremost, respond to them by means of diplomacy.  However, our western partners intentionally cut them off reducing space for interaction and chances to maintain contacts. In such circumstances, price of honest mistakes and risks of uncontrollable escalation will inevitably increase. And I would like repeat, this is not our choice.

Some try to compare the current situation to the Cold War, but it is not completely correct. Surely, there were problems and mutual expulsions of diplomats - but the scale was different. And they were not based on criminal collusion or inconsistent evidences as it was the case after the Salisbury incident, when the main evidence of Russia being guilty was the suggestion that it was highly likely Russia that could do it. Though Russia, unlike the US, eliminated all its chemical weapons; and it was confirmed by the OPCW inspectors. The fact that the Novichok agent mentioned by Theresa May was patented and produced in the USA as a chemical weapon was ignored. It was also tested in the labs of Czech Republic and passed on to other NATO countries, which was confirmed by the Czech President Milos Zeman.

Dialogue based on mutual respect is now being replaced by an endeavor to impinge the opponent at any price and to prove your superiority by applying obnoxious pressure on both enemies and friends. In this sense, Cold War could serve as an example of a responsible and rational behavior.

It is a well-known fact that a global and targeted campaign has been launched to demonize Russia and everything connected to it. And you shouldn’t think that this resulted from the Ukrainian crisis alone. The attacks had started long before 2014. The U-turn over the Atlantic ordered by the outstanding Russian politician Evgeny Primakov on March 24, 1999 could be considered the turning point in the relations between Russia and the West. Mr. Primakov was en route to the US with an official visit as the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, when he found out about the NATO’s decision to commence airstrikes on Yugoslavia. He then ordered to turn around the plane flying over the Atlantic Ocean and came back to Moscow. This is when Russia started turning to multi-faceted and independent foreign policy which, in turn, was not well-received by Washington and its satellite states used to the world hegemony.

There were other events after that. For example, outcry from Western countries over the Vladimir Putin’s speech on world unipolarity problems in Munich in February 2007. The theses voiced at the time regarding the necessity to form a multipolar world order, the imposition of the game rules by Washington on other states, and the application of the domestic legislation outside the country proved to be right.

Another example is Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia and killing of Russian peacekeepers with the UN mandate in August 2008. Swiss press, as well as other western European mass media though, referred to this event as Russian aggression. Somehow, no one recalls that Georgian governmental troops launched the first attack on the UN peacekeepers base using heavy artillery and bombed Tskhinvali civil quarters indiscriminately. No one mentions that, at the time, the EU formed a special international fact-finding commission to investigate the causes of the war. By the way, it was headed by the Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini.  After a year of investigation, a report was published stating clearly and directly that Tbilisi was the one to blame for triggering off the war. But apparently, this is not the information that sells and that the West needs. Thus, Tagliavini’s commission report results were forgotten, and Russia was still blamed for aggression. That is regarding the question of facts and their interpretation.

It was in August 2008 when the Western press blatantly distorted the facts and launched the first most massive in the newest history wave of misinformation – or what we call now fake news. Major western TV channels showed footages of the attacks of the Georgian army on the Ossetian towns and villages and shootings of civilians claiming these were the Russian soldiers. Attempts of witnesses to comment on what was really going on were cut off, for instance, by the TV presenters on CNN. 

How much was taken out on us during the preparation to a peaceful and uniting event - the Olympic Games in Sochi. After the coup-d’état in Ukraine we were openly demonized, while all the facts were distorted. And when in all the blatant propaganda and pressure on our country our most vigorous critics reached a point where the norms of international law had become obstacles, they ignored them.

If we speak about the nature of sanctions, it is important to understand that their legitimacy is defined by the approval of the UN Security Council. That was not the case with Russia. Which means that the sanctions imposed against us are illegal, and they violate international law. At the same time, we do not see sanctions imposed for heavy-handed interference into the affairs of other countries and disruption of their political life. There’re many examples: Yugoslavia, Iraq or Libya. We as the world community must get back to the basic respect of the norms of the international law and the UN Charter. Only then negative consequences can be avoided, as those that we still have to deal with after the bombing of Yugoslavia and forcible democratization of Middle East that resulted in state collapse, outbreak of radical Islam and birth of the Islamic State. It is important to realize that the world is interconnected, and unilateral decisions must be avoided when working together on achieving harmonious development.

Now we witness obvious attempts of the US and their close allies to create some sort of an international reality ruled and judged by them. Instead of respecting the international law, they are constantly imposing the so-called order based on rules that we allegedly break. And that, as they say, is the reason why the relations between the West and Russia have deteriorated. Usually, they also blame us for the so-called annexation of Crimea and interference in the conflict in the East Ukraine. They turn a blind eye to how the Ukrainian crisis unrolled and conceal unsavory role of the Western countries in this conflict. The inescapable fact is that it was the US and the European allies that not only openly supported but also provoked the coup-d’état in Kiev. It was them who did not fulfill their obligations as guarantors of the agreement signed by Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition on February 21, 2014. Let me remind you that Foreign Ministers of Germany, Poland and France were the guarantors of its implementation. Then, they called the Maidan putsch a democratic revolution. And then, they held Russia responsible for all the chaos, bloodshed and terror, and the conflict initiated by the nationalists.

So, what happened in Ukraine in terms of the rights?  The putschists, who organized the anti-constitutional coup-d’état, commenced aggressive attacks on their fellow citizens demanding to recognize the illegal authority.  And they got a tacit consent from the West - its support, to say the least. Let me remind you that Donetsk and Luhansk didn’t attack the rest of Ukraine. It was the regular Ukrainian army that, despite the prohibition of the use of the Ukrainian armed forces within its territory and against its own people stated in the Constitution, bombed Luhansk. Meanwhile, the new Kiev authorities declared the citizens of Donetsk and Luhansk terrorists, and initiated a civil war that is still leaving thousands of civilians dead – 13,000 people, mainly civilians, have become victims of this war.

We all witnessed how, just few weeks ago, radical Ukrainian nationalists got into an open altercation with the president Vladimir Zelensky refusing to take part in disengagement of forces in Donbass.  Isn’t that a proof that the war party, which is not interested in establishing peace, still stands strong in Ukraine? Armed nationalist groups recusant to the central Kiev authority play a crucial role here.

Ukrainian citizens living in Donbass did not take hostages and did not subject the officials to death threats. They tried to protect themselves and their children from the offences against their identity, way of life and language. It was Kiev that arranged sabotage operations in Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic including blasting bridges and telephone exchanges, blowing up and killing political figures of these unrecognized republics, namely DNR’s leader Alexander Zakharchenko, prominent commanders of Donbass militia (Motorola, Givi etc.). So, who is using terrorists’ approach here? Is it Donbass civilians or is it official Ukraine authorities?

From the beginning of the conflict till very recently, the Ukrainian government had been rejecting to conduct a direct civilized dialogue with these people, choosing military pressure over negotiations. Donbass has been subjected to a socio-economic blockade by Kiev since 2015. It means that the government halted all the social payments to the people living in this region, aggravating current extremely complicated economic situation. And don’t forget, Kiev refers to these people as Ukrainian citizens.

Donbass residents are completely isolated from the political process in Ukraine. According to the Central Election Committee of Ukraine, there are 3 million people living there. They are deprived of their key political right to elect and be elected, and they didn’t participate in the last Ukrainian elections. How should these people feel about the central authorities? Besides, recently, the nationalists have been urging more and more often to cleanse Donbass territory from the residents that they call “colorados/koloradi”, comparing them to the Colorado beetle, because they think they’ve become too pro-Russian. Just a reminder that this is happening in Europe.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree simplifying the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for Donbass residents in order to mitigate the impact of the continuous humanitarian crisis in the region. It is simply a humanitarian gesture aimed to protect human and civil rights and liberties. This decision was taken based on generally acknowledged principles and norms of international law. Now, the European Union doesn’t recognize these passports. It turns out that Western bureaucracy doesn’t care about the fate of these disadvantaged people but does care about the fate of the territories. Don’t you think that it’s a vivid example of distorted perception of the reality?

By the way, I don’t think that Western advocates for human rights protested against violations of the rights of Ukrainian people by the Ukrainian government. Yet, there are plenty of discussions around alleged violations of human rights in Crimea. And as a rule, these discussions are conducted by the people or organizations that have never even been to Crimea. Unfortunately, such selective approach seems to be a norm today.

As to Crimea, Maidan putschists prepared an even more atrocious plan for it than for Donbass. And they didn’t hide it. At the time, leader of the nationalist movement Right Sector Commander-in-Chief of Ukrainian Armed Forces – who later became a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada and the Adviser to Chief of General Staff – Dmytro Yarosh stated publicly that Russians had to be either banished from Crimea or killed because Russians would never think the way Ukrainians did, and they would never worship Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. Looking back at the developments in the East Ukraine, there was no doubt that those promises would be kept.

However, legitimately elected during Yanukovich presidency Crimean authorities held a public referendum in compliance with the Ukrainian Constitution and international law which resulted in the Crimea’s reunification with Russia. And I’ll repeat that Crimea’s reunification with Russia was immaculate from juridical and technical perspective. Moreover, not just the majority but almost all the population of the peninsula – 96.7% – voted in favor of the reunification. Today, when we hear the demands to give Crimea back to Ukraine, they talk about territory. For some reason, nobody thinks about people living there who clearly stated their position - and in strict conformity with international law.

Moreover, Crimean authorities were well-aware of the Kosovo precedent caused by our western partners in the situation identical to what happened in Crimea. At the time, the West affirmed that there was no need for the Serbia’s central authorities to allow unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo. On July 22, 2010, the UN International Court of Justice decided, basing on the Article 1, paragraph 2 of the UN Charter, that “no general prohibition may be inferred from the practice of the Security Council with regard to declarations of independence” and that “declaration of independence by a part of the country doesn’t violate any international norms”. 

Another example of double-standard practices by our western partners is the declaration signed by Donald Trump last April that recognizes the Golan Heights as Israeli sovereign territory – the territory that Tel-Aviv reclaimed from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981. This territory is considered occupied by the United Nations. In his recent speech, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo compared Crimea to Golan Heights and said that there were some factual circumstances in the case of the Golan Heights. However, we never got to know what these circumstances were.

Here’s some reality-reflecting statistics. The population of the Crimea is over 2,3 million people. After Crimea’s reunification with Russia, 7,000 moved to Ukraine while 50,000 moved from Ukraine to Crimea.

Ukrainian government tried many times to get the Crimeans to like them. But the methods they used were quite shady as those they used in Donbass: the peninsula was subjected to an economic blockade; electricity was immediately cut off along with the water supplies via the North-Crimean Canal. Kiev used every occasion to openly talk about an ecological disaster that Crimea could suffer from due to lack of water that resulted from the actions Kiev undertook. Surely, all these problems could be solved. Despite all the obstacles, the Crimean Peninsula is developing rapidly, and prosperity of the citizens is growing. I highly recommend you to visit this one of the most beautiful places on Earth and to make up your own opinion.

Information manipulation is another steady characteristic of today’s world. Some of our western partners pursue tremendous efforts to conceal the things that, for some reason they don’t like, from the public. Anti-Russian mass media play an important role in this. This approach is nothing but a forgery attempt distorting the reality. It is considered to be correct only if it corresponds to the set of rules written by the West that, by the way, can often change along the way.

Let’s look back at Kosovo. On February 17, 2008, the republic’s parliament adopted an act that declared its independence. Think about it – there was no referendum as it was the case with Crimea; it happened at a regional legislative institution where dozens of people decided the fate of the state. This action wasn’t followed by any sanctions, as it was the case with Crimea. It was followed by a wave of Kosovo’s independence recognition by western countries despite our warnings of malign repercussions. Our Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov then said that by doing so the West opened a Pandora’s box. Interestingly, even neutral Switzerland was one of the first countries that recognized Kosovo as an independent state on February 27, 2008.

And what should we say about the US actions in Syria in terms of international law? The US army, that had no legal basis to be in Syria, unlike Russian armed forces invited there by the legitimate government, captured oil fields in the northern part of Syria and launched oil smuggling with the help of the army. Nonetheless, Washington declared that the legitimate Syrian government would get no access to their own wells. The only things that come to mind are state banditry and theft.

Today, economy has turned into a battlefield. Politics and armed forces are increasingly used for the purposes of commercial benefit forcing the others, including their own allies, to act sacrifying its own interests. In most cases such an approach emanates from the USA – the country that has been the main advocate for freedom, democracy and open economic system for decades. Now it seems obvious how dangerous it is when one country rules the world financial system. Another reason why working consistently towards international relations polycentric in all fields is an urgent necessity. This issue of creating a more just, effective and stable economic and political world is now long overdue.

Russia was consistent and honest in its attempt to become a part of the global economy – the system that was not created by us. We were ready to share responsibility for its growth and to use its advantages for our own development. And now, in order to please a small group of countries, we are being forced out of the system and punished with isolation. It is obvious though that it is impossible to isolate us without causing severe damages to the entire world community. These attempts won’t undermine our country, but they will undermine trust to the system and to those who created it.

Besides, the sanctions imposed on our country are a double-edged sword that also damages countries that use this tool. According to experts’ estimations, the EU losses amounted to 240 billion U.S. dollars. According to the Kiel institution for political research, Germany loses 620 million euro every month (as of May 2018) due to the sanctions. According to the statistics provided by the European Center for Entrepreneurship and Policy Reform, Swiss economy alone, which didn’t join the EU sanctions but adopted restrictive measures to prevent their bypass from within, has lost 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, and Swiss exports has declined by 26% comparing to the pre-sanctions period.

We’re learning to overcome artificially created obstacles and we continue to foster mutually beneficial cooperation with those who are ready for it. Even though it’s not easy, our economy copes with the consequences of illegal unilateral restrictions. We’re prioritizing building national productive capacities and diversifying foreign contacts. Today, Russia is the 6^th largest economy in world GDP rankings.

Despite current challenges, our country is pursuing constructive and unifying approach in foreign policy. Surely, it is first and foremost oriented on creating favorable environment for the domestic development, technological boost and our citizens’ well-being improvement.

As to Europe and the West, we’re still ready to cooperate both with European Union and with individual Western states. Russia has always been and still is a part of the European continent. We have a lot in common when it comes to history, culture and people. We’re still open to the idea of building a common economic and humanitarian space from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On a bigger scale, we see a perspective of creating a Greater Eurasian Partnership. Of course, such cooperation should be based on mutual benefit and on a dialogue based on mutual respect – and not on ultimatums.

Today, it’s crucial to objectively assess world events and challenges of the current historic period which is, as I’ve mentioned before, all about creating a polycentric world order which could be more chaotic than the bipolar world on early stages of the development. These are the risks associated with appearance of a number of influential players that require to treat diplomacy more carefully, to work on reducing tensions and creating a model that would meet everyone’s expectations. And we believe that all the transformations are to be carried out in strict conformity with international law.

If you take a look at today’s world, you’ll inevitably realize that we all fail to evaluate current situation soberly and as objectively as possible. We lack an open-minded outside perspective. And in that, Switzerland, being a neutral country with a rich experience in mediation, can become one of the key players provided that it can live up to its image as an honest broker – which is not an easy task today.  

In today’s rapidly changing world the nature of things is forced to change too. Conventionally, neutrality has always been used to protect states’ population from adversities caused by armed conflicts. But recently, it has changed. As I’ve mentioned before, modern confrontations are of hybrid nature and they can unfold in economic, information and other fields. How should neutrality apply in this scenario? I believe you’ll agree with me that treating equally all conflict parties should remain immutable.

The question that has been asked recently with increasing frequency is the following: is neutrality possible in our fast globalizing world?

We highly appreciate Switzerland’s efforts in providing, as they say, good offices. We believe that, in general, the Swiss Confederation copes well with the mediation tasks. We understand that Bern cannot possibly solve all the problems in the world, and it deserves credit for what is being done. We expect that Switzerland will remain objective in dealing with pressing issues of today and will take the context of current events into account.

 

Now let’s move on to Russian-Swiss relations. They have a longstanding history going back to the foundation of the Confederation and even earlier. After the victory over Napoleon in 1815 at the Vienna Congress, it was Russia that insisted on recognizing Switzerland as an independent country and establishing its neutrality rather than dividing its territories among other states. This decision was envisaged by a special international act. Before that, in 1799, the outstanding Russian commander Alexander Suvorov led Russian Army across the Alps – a famous historical event that laid the foundation for Russian-Swiss friendship.

Many Russians lived in Switzerland during the second half of the 19^th century. Here are some interesting facts in this regard. In 1867, Nadezhda Suslova, a Russian young woman, was the first foreign female student at a Swiss university. Later, she became first female physician in Russia. Another Russian, Anna Tumarkina obtained her PhD at Bern University in 1895 and became first female professor in Europe. Names of many brilliant Russian writers, composers and artists, including Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Nabokov, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sylvester Shchedrin, Nikolai Yaroshenko, Marina Verevkina known as Marianne von Werefkin and many others are associated with Switzerland.

Today, despite a challenging political background, we are fostering our bilateral cooperation.

In 2018, the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev met with the President of the Swiss Confederation at the time Alain Berset on two separate occasions: at the 12^th ASEM summit in Brussels in October and at the Palermo Conference on Libya in November. Both Russia and Switzerland are making efforts to keep contacts on high level regular. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis meet on regular basis. Last negotiations took place in Moscow on June 19, 2019 right after the opening ceremony of the new Swiss Embassy building in the Russian capital. Thanks to the stability of the contacts between our Foreign Ministers, we can monitor in real time the most pressing issues on the international agenda and reach agreements on the solutions as well as foster our cooperation. 

Interparliamentary contacts on high level are also frequent. In June 2019, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko made an official visit to Switzerland where she held negotiations with President of the Council of States of the Swiss Confederation Jean-René Fournier. In October, they continued their dialogue in Moscow during his working visit. Mr. Fournier was also received by the Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin. During this visit, they held extensive discussions on the entire range of issues on international and bilateral agenda with emphasis on growing importance of interparliamentary diplomacy in reducing world tensions.

Our interparliamentary friendship groups pursue active cooperation. Their last meeting took place in Bern in September 2019. Russian delegation, headed by the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Yuri Vorobiev, was received by the President of the Council of States Jean-René Fournier and his first Vice President Hans Stöckli.

This year, on August 23-26, head of the Federal Department for Economic Affairs, Education and Research Guy Parmelin visited Kazan and participated in the Opening ceremony of the 45^th WorldSkills Competition where the Swiss national team showed astonishing results winning 16 medals and ranking 3^rd on in the final team rating.

We highly appreciate balanced approach of the members of the Swiss parliament regarding individual pressing international issues. Thanks to their principled stance, the Council of Europe crisis, following Russia’s voting rights suspension in Parliamentary Assembly, was resolved. As you may know, our legal powers were fully restored.

The Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation also continues its effective work. The 20^th session of the Commission will take place on December 17 in Moscow.

Moreover, on November 20, the 4^th meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Scientific and Technical Cooperation was held in Moscow.

St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and World Economic Forum in Davos also encourage a substantive dialogue between Russian and Swiss economic operators.

More than 300 Swiss companies are successfully operating in Russia. Numerous large Swiss companies including ABB, LafargeHolcim, Nestlé, Novartis etc. have invested over 10 billion U.S. dollars in construction and development of new production facilities in Russia.

Some 40 thousand jobs have been created at Swiss enterprises with Russian capital. An important role in ensuring investment flows belongs to the Russian banking subsidiaries registered here such as Sberbank (Switzerland) AG, Gazprombank (Switzerland) Ltd., which have enough capacities for implementing joint infrastructure and innovation projects as well as import substitution programs in Russia.

As for our bilateral trade with the Swiss Confederation, it should be noted that over the last few years it has been developing in the conditions of rather volatile global economic environment and has not been completely free from the global political situation.

Switzerland's actual adherence to anti-Russian Western restrictions imposed in connection with the Ukrainian crisis remains one of the restraining factors for the development of bilateral relations. The so-called measures to prevent the circumvention of sanctions on the Swiss territory, announced by the Swiss Federal Council back in April 2014, have significantly undermined bilateral trade, which have reduced by half: from 11.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2013 to 6.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 and to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.

The trade turnover growth of our countries resumed in 2016, and up to and including 2018 it increased annually by more than 20%. According to the Russian customs statistics, in 2018 the Russian-Swiss trade balance reached 7.39 billion US dollars. In January-August 2019, the volume of mutual trade amounted to 4.099 billion U.S. dollars, which is 6% less than in the same period last year. The negative correction was caused by the decrease in exports of precious metals, aluminum and inorganic chemicals from Russia to Switzerland. Nevertheless, the overall positive trend has remained. However, the pre-crisis volumes are still far from being restored.

Gradually increasing concerns of the Swiss to fall under extraterritorial application of the US legislation, because of Washington’s spiral of sanctions against Russia, doesn’t contribute to harmonious cooperation between our countries. Under these circumstances, cases of unreasonable refusal of local firms to cooperate with companies associated with our country are becoming more common which forces some of them to close their business in the Swiss Confederation. So far, these cases are rare, but the tendency is rather concerning.

We consistently foster Russian-Swiss relations on regional level. These relations are first and foremost based on mutual interest in effective realization of the economic potential of both our countries. Several decades of mutually beneficial cooperation resulted in establishing a significant number of useful direct contacts between different regions of our countries as well as between economic operators.

Regions of Russia continue their fruitful collaboration with Swiss cantons in the fields not affected by economic sanctions which include, but are not limited to, power engineering, mechanical engineering, pharmaceutical industry, agriculture, timber industry, and construction. This year, delegations from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Tatarstan and Sverdlovsk Oblast visited Switzerland. 

I’m glad to point out that Swiss representatives are actively studying regions of the Russian Federation and their economic potential. So far, Swiss cantons still have contacts mainly with the European part of Russia. However, Swiss businesses show growing interest in other regions of our country. They are especially interested in taking part in development of a tourism cluster in the Northern Caucasus and implementation of economic projects in the Russian Far East in different fields including healthcare, agriculture, industry, logistics and machine engineering. In this regard, this year, a round of negotiations, arranged with the support of the Swiss Embassy in Moscow, was held with the Dagestan, Ingushetia and Primorsky Region authorities.

In the meantime, we can only regret that Swiss media coverage of the Russia-related events is mostly negative, as it is in mainstream of Western media. But there’re some exceptions. For example, during the FIFA World Cup local newspapers pointed out hospitality of Russian people, beauty of Russian cities and an impeccable organization of the championship. Russia carried out an extensive preparatory work for the tournament. A whole new infrastructure was developed including interurban transport networks, airports, and modern stadiums and hotels. Football fans, as well as tourists, enjoyed their trip to Russia. Highly enthusiastic feedback from fans from all over the world is a proof to that. As is the fact that FIFA President Gianni Infantino called it the best World Cup in history.

We welcome Switzerland’s strong interest in Russian cultural heritage. Famous Russian artists participate regularly in most international music festivals taking place in the Swiss Confederation. There is an established exchange of exhibitions between our top-rated museums.

This year, Russian Embassy in Switzerland launched a project called Russian Seasons 2019. Festival of classical music Septembre Musical (September 1-9, 2019), Sculpture Biennale and the 15th Contemporary Art Salon in Montreux were successfully held as part of the project and our cultural collaboration. Christmas market in Montreux is coming up next. And Russia and its cultural heritage are the main theme of these events.

As in previous years, Suvorov days (September 20-30, 2019), that this year commemorated 220^th anniversary of the Suvorov’s march across the Alps, were very well-received by the public. Concerts of young cadets of the Valery Khalilov Moscow Suvorov Military Music College were the centerpiece of the celebration.

In 2020, we’re celebrating the 350^th anniversary of the birth of the Swiss architect Domenico Trezzini. His name is closely associated with Russia since this architect working for Peter the Great became well-known worldwide thanks to the opportunities he had in our country. The Golden Trezzini Awards competition, that is taking place now in Saint Petersburg, was organized with the support of the Russian Embassy. Next year, we’re planning to organize a series of events dedicated to this brilliant architect.

In conclusion, I’d like to say that, despite the current political environment, relations between Russia and Switzerland are in continuous and steady development. Moreover, if we put all the prejudices aside, they have quite a potential for expansion within an entire range of sectors – from politics to culture.