Price: 297,000 francs: not a luxury watch for Russia

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Until February 24, 2022, Russia was an important trading partner of Switzerland. Be it oil, gas, gold or luxury watches: the ruble has rolled strongly in both directions. But things have collapsed with Russia since Putin’s attack on Ukraine and the adoption of EU sanctions.

Everyday products such as tobacco or Nestlé chocolate are still sold in Russia by Swiss companies. Fashion brands such as Hugo Boss also send textiles there via Switzerland: Anything that is not luxury is not subject to sanctions. However, Swiss customs officers continue to find illegal shipments destined for Russia.

On April 29, 2022, almost two months after the start of the war, a Muscovite ordered a luxury wristwatch from Geneva that cost almost 300,000 francs. This is what emerges from a penalty notice that Blick reviewed based on the public information law. In the end, a fine of 5,000 francs had to be paid.

• But officers also confiscate less conspicuous goods:
• Banned pump accessories worth 40,000 francs resulted in a fine of 2,000 francs.
• A fine of 4,500 francs is imposed for food dyes worth approximately 50,000 francs.
• A fine of 700 francs was imposed for the painting, which cost 1,500 francs.

Of the approximately 200 suspicious cases, 40 ultimately led to administrative criminal proceedings, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs Seco Blick reported. So far, 28 cases have been legally concluded: 20 stay of execution orders and eight penalty notices have been issued. In 78 cases, administrative penalty cases were not filed.

Scope uncertain

It is unclear how many goods and what amount of rubles are secretly moving back and forth between Switzerland and Russia.

The NGO Public Eye suspects that many transactions with Russian raw materials are still being carried out in this country. “Traders in Switzerland are not required to report or keep documentation of their purchases of Russian oil,” Public Eye writes. Swiss authorities are counting on “the good will of the sector that is being asked to regulate itself.”

But just as the luxury watch was found by Swiss customs officials, Lenin’s famous maxim applies to the trade in raw materials: Trust is good, control is better.

A simple way to get around the sanctions is to enter not with a Russian passport, but with a second passport from Azerbaijan.

There are no fewer Russians on Bahnhofstrasse, however, as the doorman of a luxury hotel in Zurich told the German “Zeit”: “Russians enter with an Azerbaijani passport, Chechens with a Georgian passport. Mr. Sergei Leskov is now called Leskovoglu.”

Source :Blick