Five stark examples that Washington’s Western mainstream media partners cannot and must not divulge.
“Rampant financial anonymity in places like the U.S. makes it relatively easy for powerful rich people to evade sanctions. A Russian oligarch may have multimillion-dollar mansions in Washington, D.C.; or multiple steel plants across the Rust Belt; or a controlling stake in a hedge fund in Greenwich, Connecticut; or an entire fleet of private jets in California; or an array of lawyers setting up purchases at art houses around the country.
And all of that wealth can be hidden—perfectly legally—behind anonymous shell companies and trusts that are enormously difficult to penetrate,” writes Casey Michel, author of the book “American Cleptocracy” in the Atlantic.
However, Switzerland currently differs greatly from America in this regard: Under intense pressure from the United States and the European Union, the Alpine republic — once a haven for the extremely wealthy — has driven rich Russians out of the nation and seized their assets, including their homes, cars, and money.
Ignoring its neutrality, Switzerland has adopted all EU sanctions unchecked (and implemented them much more consistently than some EU countries). Although Switzerland claims to be a state governed by the rule of law, it has committed property violations and disregarded other constitutional principles such as the presumption of innocence and the granting of due process of law.
In 2009, businessman Andrey Melnichenko settled in Switzerland with his family. He was born in Belarus in 1972. His mother is Ukrainian, his father Belarusian. At a young age, he participated in numerous science competitions and won the Russian “Physics Olympiad” at the age of seventeen. An astute entrepreneur, he first founded a bank from scratch at the age of 21 and then built manufacturing industries. He owns EuroChem, a world leader in fertilizer production, and coal companies. His companies employ 130,000 people worldwide. The headquarters of its holding company is located in Switzerland.
Andrey Melnichenko and his wife Alexandra. [Image source: www.jutarnji.hr]
Overnight, he became persona non grata in Switzerland. The European Union put him on a sanctions list, and supposedly neutral Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, followed suit and obeyed. Yet he is neither an oligarch nor does he belong to “Putin’s inner circle,” as the European Union and Switzerland falsely claim. Even his wife, though not Russian, was sanctioned under general suspicion in an act of group persecution. The European Union and Switzerland have denied Melnichenko any legal hearing, not even his letters and those of his lawyers have been answered. Read the full story in the article “Are Russians the New Jews?“
Still, the U.S. wrote an aggressive letter signed by France, Italy, the U.K. and Japan accusing the Swiss of not looking hard enough for “oligarch” funds.
The US ambassador to Switzerland even went on a public rant against the country’s government.
“Reading media reports, one could get the impression that Moscow is easily skirting Western sanctions. Articles abound describing how murky firms in Kazakhstan, Turkey, or the United Arab Emirates are funneling shipments of technology and other sanctioned goods to Russia. (…) Yet a sober look at the data paints a more nuanced picture,” writes the global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit in her piece in Foreign Policy (FP) on May 25, 2023. She also notes that “evading sanctions is hard for a big country like Russia” and that “China is not a major enabler.” (FP headline screenshot)
It’s déjà vu: Washington had already successfully fought tax evasion in Switzerland in the past, making the United States by far the largest tax evasion paradise in the world, where the biggest washing machines for dirty drug money, for criminal profits of all kinds, are located.
They have imposed their data octopus FATCA on the world, using their menacing “big stick” dollar. They themselves don’t give a damn about the automatic exchange of information with other countries, denying them equal access to data on suspects and potential criminals.
They have massively weakened the Swiss banks with billions in fines to strengthen their own, and undermined the legal sovereignty of Switzerland. As befits an aggressive empire, U.S. unilateralism and militarism are not enough and must be supplemented by extending its jurisdiction to extraterritorial areas, worldwide. Now US laws apply in Switzerland, a horde of US lawyers sits in the big banks to control the compliance with US laws in Switzerland.
Politicians in Switzerland, as in the rest of Europe, are apparently unable to see through the economic imperialist intentions of the USA.
However, it goes far beyond than that. The examples below demonstrate how, when their own interests so dictate, the US and the EU even disregard their own sanctions!
Tesla needs “malignant” aluminium
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the US Department of the Treasury which enforces sanctions put Russian manufacturer Rusal on the Russia sanctions list because of “malign activities.” But billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla needed its aluminium. Quietly OFAC removed Rusal, no longer “malignant”, from its sanctions list.
General Electric does not want to continue business, except for the lucrative businesses
Although General Electric (GE) has publicly stated that it has discontinued its operations in Russia, that is presumably those that are not profitable under the circumstances, it has received two exemptions from OFAC for two profitable businesses that it wanted to continue.
Britain loves “special” wealthy Russians
Britain officially imposes sanctions on all wealthy Russians, except for those who receive a “special permit.”
Belgium: Russian diamonds are forever
Belgium operates a large diamond business. Sanctions must not hinder it. Therefore, the European Union has made an exception and allowed the country to continue trading with Russian rough diamonds.
Greece is eager to ship “cursed” Russian oil
Greece has successfully protected its large tanker fleet. Therefore, the West allows the country to continue transporting Russian oil.
Don’t be fooled
Perhaps now some sanctions supporters realize that it is not about protecting Western civilization, democracy and values from the “invading hordes” from the East. It is only about tangible interests, economic policy, military policy, world and power politics. And don’t give a damn about their lofty morals, which lack authenticity, as I pointed out, for example, in this article about the ever-more-sanction-demanding woke German elite. Those who embrace the propaganda narrative are gullible. Fool is he who crawls on the dung of cheap falsehoods.