Church patriarch Kirill of Putin spied in Switzerland – that’s the Sunday news ABB makes more sales – but profits plummet

More than half of voters support arms for Ukraine

A majority of voters from the six largest Swiss parties have voted in favor of arms transfers to Ukraine. This has emerged from a study carried out by the Sotomo research institute on behalf of “NZZ am Sonntag”. With a 58 percent yes vote, the agreement of GLP voters was most evident on the question, “Should Switzerland allow other countries to transfer Swiss-made weapons to Ukraine?”. Supporters of the SVP most clearly said “No” at 67 percent, as a graph in the “NZZ am Sonntag” showed. In total, according to the newspaper, about a third answered “yes” and a fifth with “rather yes”.

US senator fears Swiss sanctions violations against Russia

In Bern, Secretary of State Ignazio Cassis discussed an initiative by US Senator Roger Wicker with US Ambassador Scott Miller. Wicker fears Switzerland could send $230 million to Putin confidants in Russia in connection with the Magnitsky fraud case, violating US sanctions. The Republican therefore asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to intervene with Cassis. The late Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky uncovered a $230 million tax fraud in Russia. The federal prosecutor’s office closed the proceedings in 2021 and found no money laundering in Switzerland. The federal prosecutor’s office had frozen 18 million Swiss francs. The funds remain blocked in Switzerland, as the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the “SonntagsZeitung” announced. The reason for this is current complaints from Schweizer. During their conversation, Cassis and Miller emphasized the importance of impartial justice.

Swisscom wants to be more sensitive to customer emails when the prosecutor investigates

The Swiss telecom company Swisscom will in the future independently check the sealing of e-mail inboxes when the investigative authorities issue disclosure orders. This was confirmed by the company “NZZ am Sonntag”. Authorities are only allowed to use sealed documents if they have been released by a court. Until now, the order of the Swisscom edition has been understood as a confiscation of the mailbox, wrote the “SonntagsZeitung”. This was Swisscom’s response to the current affair in which special investigator Peter Marti had access to the mailbox of Peter Lauener, former head of communications for federal councilor Alain Berset.

Here’s the detailed story:

The Patriarch of Putin’s Church, Kirill, was spying in Switzerland

The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, worked as a spy for the Soviet secret service KGB in Geneva in the 1970s. The “SonntagsZeitung” looked at the file on the head of the church, prepared by the federal police at the time. As a representative of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Kirill was tasked with gathering information on other members of the Council and positively influencing the US and NATO position towards the Soviet Union. To date, Kirill has visited Switzerland 43 times, the newspaper continued. Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church declined to comment on the espionage charges. The World Council of Churches has no information on the subject. According to Kirill’s cousin, his uncle was not a KGB agent at the time, but was under close intelligence surveillance.

Due to a Swiss visit: Taiwan’s subway receives bomb threats

Taiwan’s metro company Taoyuan Metro has received a bomb threat following a visit from Swiss MPs. Unknown people demanded that there should be no meeting between the Switzerland-Taiwan friendship groups, as “SonntagsBlick” wrote. They threatened to attack the metro line between the airport and the central station. Security measures have been increased. The parliamentary services were informed. They could not provide any further information as the trip was organized privately. Friendship groups are not an organ of the Federal Assembly. A trip is planned from February 5 to 10, including a possible meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. The members of the group who wanted to travel to Taiwan could not be reached when the “SonntagsBlick” went to press.

German anti-Semitism commissioner demands clarification from Tamedia

The German government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, has asked Tamedia to comment on the latest allegations against the publishing house. German journalist Anuschka Roshani accused her former supervisor at Tamedia of placing swastikas on mostly German words in her texts. That was “deeply disturbing,” Klein told the Catholic news portal kath.ch. The former manager’s lawyer denied the allegations. Roshani also made public allegations of bullying and abuse of power against superiors in the current issue of “Mirror”. She sued the publisher for breach of duty of care alleging sexist discrimination and invalid or abusive termination, as “SonntagsBlick” wrote. An external investigation commissioned by Tamedia found that the allegations were largely unfounded, the publisher wrote to SonntagsBlick.

Sin and church funds are doing well

Sinful and virtuous funds have outperformed index funds over the past year. The Ave Maria fund, which follows the moral teachings of the Catholic Church when investing, rose 2.6 percent, as the “SonntagsZeitung” reported. For example, the fund does not invest in companies such as hospitals that deal with abortion. According to the newspaper, about one-fifth is in the energy sector, which has boosted returns. The Vice Fund ETF also closed better than broad stock market indices by minus 5 percent. He only invests in faulty industries: gambling, tobacco, alcohol and weapons. The global stock market collapsed by 20 percent.

Credit Suisse buys luxury hotel for more than 800 million

The major Swiss bank Credit Suisse has partnered with a Hawaiian real estate company to buy a luxury hotel in Florida for CHF 835 million. It is one of the most expensive real estate transactions in South Florida in recent years, wrote the “SonntagsZeitung”. The hotel “The Diplomat on Hollywood Beach” has a thousand rooms, half of which are suites, and is located directly on the beach. According to booking platforms, an overnight stay costs around 1,200 francs. The bank expects that tourism in Florida will soon return to pre-coronavirus levels.

Swiss sports greats appear unsolicited on postage stamps in Africa

Several African countries have issued stamps depicting Swiss sports greats such as Roger Federer, Didier Defago and Dominique Gisin without their permission. The stamps were produced by a Lithuanian company that had persuaded several countries to entrust the production to them, reported the French-language Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche. While skier Dominique Gisin reacted enthusiastically to the sight of the stamp featuring her image being distributed in the island state of São Tomé and Príncipe, others were more annoyed. “Such a practice is intolerable and I will do something,” says the agent of Dario Cologna, whose photo can be seen on a postage stamp in Sierra Leone. (sda)