Switzerland Today: A briefing of the latest news on Tuesday

Hello from Bern!

On stage with Coldplay, in the stands for Elton John, on the court with Princess Kate, where will Roger Federer be next? Retirement looks good on the Swiss tennis great.

More on Federer’s retirement, sanctions loopholes and other news in today’s briefing from Switzerland.

This content was published on July 4, 2023 - 18:00

4 minutes

Jessica covers the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to big global companies and their impact in Switzerland and abroad. She’s always looking for a Swiss connection with her native San Francisco and will happily discuss why her hometown has produced some of the greatest innovations but can’t seem to solve its housing crisis.

In the News: Taking stock of the free movement of people, a helicopter crash, and more neutrality questions as Switzerland gets set to join Europe’s air defence system.

EU immigration has been largely positive for the Swiss economy. It has curbed ageing of the population and raised labour market potential, according to a study 20 years after Switzerland’s introduction of the free movement of people agreement with the European Union.
An Air Zermatt helicopter crashed on the Monte Rosa massif on Tuesday morning. The aircraft was destroyed, but none of the five occupants was injured.
Swiss Defence Minister Viola Amherd plans to sign a memorandum of understanding to participate in the European air defence system Sky Shield, sparking questions about how this aligns with Switzerland’s neutrality stance.
Swiss philosopher Peter Bieri, also known as novelist Pascal Mercier, has died aged 79. He is best known for novels such as Nachtzug nach Lissabon (Night Train to Lisbon).

Who said retirement was a snooze? Not Roger Federer

There are a lot of good things about being Roger Federer – the multiple Grand Slams, the billions in sponsorship deals that keep on giving, and the villa on the lake. But it seems that retirement isn’t so shabby either.

Last week Federer was playing tennis with Princess Kate in a Wimbledon charity event, then on Saturday Roger was spotted with his family at the Elton John concert in Zurich. On Sunday, he was shaking a rattle on another Zurich stage at a Coldplay concert. “Adventure of a Lifetime”, he wrote on Instagram with a photo of he and his wife huddled in a circle with Coldplay band members.

It may have been an adventure for Roger, but the media greeted the star-studded frenzy with a bit more scepticism. Even a few international media outlets couldn’t hold back mentioning that Roger didn’t quite have the rhythm and grace on stage as he did on the court.

In an article in the Tages-Anzeiger with the headlineExternal link, “Roger, the Party crasher,” Michèle Binswanger asked if the tennis star was showing the signs of retirement depression. “As one of the biggest conceivable Roger Federer fans, I’m worried,” she wrote, sarcastically.

“It is well known that sudden retirement can trigger a crisis of meaning or even depression in many people. You don’t have to be ashamed of that either,” she added. Why doesn’t the maestro just buy a yacht, she asked.

Fortunately, Federer was back on comfortable territory on Monday – at the All England Lawn. The 8-time Wimbledon champion made a special appearance to a standing ovation in his first visit to centre court since he hung up the racket last year.

Are the Swiss ready to start closing some sanctions loopholes?

What better way to spend the summer than by doing a little work around the house fixing leaks. It looks like Switzerland is doing a bit of its own summer repairs when it comes to sanctions enforcement.

Today the Financial Times reported that Swiss authorities are probing Geneva oil trader Paramount’s legal arrangements to sidestep Russia sanctions in a sign the country has begun actively policing its large commodity industry’s ties with Moscow.

This, wrote the paper, is one of the first known efforts by a European authority to investigate compliance with the western sanctions’ regime on Russian oil.

Since December, crude oil bought directly from Russia has been subject to a ceiling of $60 per barrel. Under Swiss rules, overseas subsidiaries of a local company are largely exempt from the oil price cap if they are “legally independent”. This provision was used by Paramount to transfer its Russian oil trading activity to a company with a near identical name in Dubai.

As my colleague Dominique Soguel reported, Paramount is hardly alone. There’s been a rise in so-called “pop up” traders that have even less transparency than traditional commodity players that aren’t exactly known as the sharing types.

We’ve been looking into sanctions and how well Switzerland is implementing them in our new series.