COWS AND MACHINE GUNS. IS SWITZERLAND STILL A NEUTRAL STATE?

THE OXYMORON OF "ACTIVE NEUTRALITY" BETWEEN THE WEAPONS LOBBY, RED CROSS, AND NATO

When speaking of Switzerland, the mind inevitably goes to the cows that graze placidly in the very green meadows and to the watches that symbolize the punctuality of a pragmatic people accustomed to compromise, a melting pot of ethnic groups that does business with anyone because they are used to diversity… it is an idyllic world based on the neutrality resulting from the Treaty of Paris of 1815. Yet, after more than two centuries the historical context has completely changed. The Swiss impartiality is dead and buried, as some claim? Is the leitmotif of neutrality just a useful gimmick for allies maneuvering in the shadows?

SOME INTERESTING FACTS

After all, from 1952 to 2018 Crypto AG, officially a Swiss encryption company but de facto owned by the CIA and with little influence from other entities (German BND and perhaps Swedish secret services), operated unchallenged on Swiss soil, producing machines ciphers with bugs, to allow the USA to intercept classified communications from all over the world (1). How neutral can a state be when another state acts so brazenly? And is it credible that Switzerland has not noticed anything for more than half a century? To avoid cognitive bias and easy exploitation - extremely dangerous in wartime - it is always wise to give the benefit of the doubt at least on one occasion, recognizing that no State is omniscient, free from errors or inconsistencies, and that it is always possible not to have total control of certain sectors, but the judgment can inevitably change if the episodes of partisanship are different and protracted over time.

As for the arms sector, Brügger & Thomet (now B&T AG), a Swiss company specializing in the production of arms and tactical components such as silencers and rail mounting systems (Rail Integration System), has decades-long ties with Ukraine. In 2009, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) approved the “transfer of B&T's know-how for the manufacture of small arms to a Ukrainian company”. This company is Tactical Systems, which has produced licensed copies of rifles under the trademarks TS.M.308 and TS.M.338, or TS 308 and TS 338 (2). In defense of B&T, it is fair to underline that the weapons were also used by Ukrainian policemen who, during the Euromaidan protests, defended the then President Viktor Yanukovych, a native of Donbas (3). It would therefore seem that Swiss industry limited itself, with the approval of the Swiss government, to signing agreements based solely on its financial interest, without considering either its proximity to Western partners or the use made of these weapons. However, the history of the Thun company is fragmentary and incomplete, giving rise to urban legends that are not always without foundation.

The war industry was founded in 1991 by the mysterious Karl Brügger and Heinrich Thomet. Brügger in 1985 worked in the mechanical sector for Projekt-26 (P-26), a stay-behind army that could be framed in Operation Gladio (4). Those who worked on similar projects were necessarily close to the USA or, at least, should not have been disliked by the Americans. Every single link in Gladio's long chain had been scrutinized with detail and insistence, to avoid leaks of news and sympathies for communism. Thomet, on the other hand, is described on some blogs, but also in a report by Amnesty International, as an unscrupulous arms dealer, in unflattering tones. In a parliamentary question, reference was made to his possible involvement in arms trafficking together with the former Israeli military attaché in Switzerland, Shmuel Avivi. Operating in close collaboration with the Israeli company Talon (which 70% belonged to Thomet himself) and on behalf of the US Special Operations Command, he would have sent weapons from Serbia-Montenegro to Iraq and Afghanistan (5). He is a very controversial figure, with fluctuating political sympathies and with dangerous connections in the world of the "grey market", a market in which non-state actors (such as terrorist groups and militias) obtain weapons through illegal sales. His name has also been compared to that of Efraim Diveroli, owner of AEY Inc., an arms contractor for the United States Defense, and it seems that a character in the film "War Dogs" (2016) is freely inspired by him. Every detail of his life is wrapped in a thick blanket of mystery, it is whispered deriving from illustrious protections. His unshakeable untouchability disappeared in the same years as Diveroli's fall when it transpired that Chinese ammunition resold to the USA was passed off as Hungarian (6). Since then (the early 2000s) B&T belongs only to Brügger, and it is impossible to know whether Thomet stepped aside or was ousted, perhaps because he was indigestible to the Americans, or to restore, as far as possible in this sector, an aura of candor and formal prudence. 

The fact is that now the Swiss company seems firmly anchored to NATO prospects and one of its branches is located in the USA, in Tampa. Ties with Ukraine are also strong. On LinkedIn, you can even come across B&T procurement specialists who previously worked for the Georgian-Ukrainian Council for Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, and Tactical Systems (7).

Furthermore, in recent years, an unsuspected actor may have tarnished the Swiss archetype of neutrality: the Red Cross (the International Movement of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent). One of the major "watchdog" organizations, Charity Navigator (based in the US), gives the organization four stars out of four when it comes to transparency, but it is legitimate to doubt such an achievement. Even if we wanted to ignore the increasingly frequent scandals linked to mismanagement, recruitment of family members, and receiverships, and even if we did not want to dwell on old controversies such as the Mapenduma hostage crisis of 1996 (8), we must admit that the events in which the Red Cross seems too close to the political-military elite of the Atlantic Alliance are now quite frequent to be considered mere spurious correlations. Just do a quick Google search for “RED CROSS NATO” and you'll get around 40 million results, with a couple of pretty interesting articles. In 2015, NATO participated as an observer in the 32nd International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. On that occasion, it was decided to intensify collaboration in the training sector, especially concerning international humanitarian law (9). In September last year, however, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the EU, NATO, and the Kingdom of Belgium, Knut Dörmann, visited the Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS), illustrating the "involvement of the ICRC in the development of doctrine and policy" (10).

Yet the interdependence between the military-oriented organization and the humanitarian organization is unexpectedly remote. On 22 December 1999, the then President of the Red Cross, Cornelio Sommaruga, said that: "For several years NATO and the ICRC have developed constructive contacts at various levels, at the Brussels headquarters, with SHAPE, in various NATO schools, and in operational areas. In 1996 SHAPE and the ICRC signed a Memorandum of Understanding to give their relationship a specific structure based on training in international humanitarian law and making our two organizations more familiar. In the spring of 1999, at the height of the Kosovo crisis, the North Atlantic Council expressed its desire for NATO to interact directly with the ICRC, thus recognizing the special nature of our mandate (11)”. In January 2022, shortly before his resignation as President of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer let it slip that "today it is mainly Western countries, especially the USA, that pay contributions to the ICRC (12)". The 2021 Annual Report shows that the organization obtained: 543.6 million Swiss francs from the USA, 247.5 from Germany, 156.5 from Switzerland, 153.1 from the United Kingdom, 128.9 from the European Commission, 93.2 from Sweden, 86.9 from Norway, 66 from Canada, 51 from Japan, 46.2 from the Netherlands, 45.3 from France, 34.8 from Australia, 25.9 from Denmark, 24.9 from Belgium, 17.8 from Ireland, 16.8 from Austria, 14.1 from Luxembourg, 13.4 from Finland, 12.4 from Italy, 12.2 from Spain and 10.2 from New Zealand (13).

The link between NATO, Geneva, and the Red Cross is now so indissoluble and clear that it is really rare to come across researchers on LinkedIn (often undercover NATO soldiers) who have not worked for at least a few months at the Red Cross or who have not obtained one or more post-graduate certificates in International Humanitarian Law, Security Sector Reform, etc. at the Geneva Center for Security Sector Governance or related institutes (Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining, Geneva Center for Security Policy, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies). There are even non-native speakers, without TOEFL or IELTS C1 certifications, who collect different types of courses, often conducted digitally. After all, Geneva in the last twenty years has become the inner sanctum of Western spies. Edward Snowden had already highlighted how much the Swiss city, hosting the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Telecommunication Union, was strategic. The Red Cross is no exception, and it is even easier to infiltrate here since it is not only financed by Western states but has a large Volunteer Military Corps, made up mostly of retired soldiers.

Indeed, since 2007, the ICRC has also begun to collaborate with the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization), the military alliance made up of Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. In 2015 the delegations of the two organizations met in Moscow, and - exactly as for NATO - they discussed the necessity of the IHL application in the fight against international terrorism (14). In 2017, the Red Cross even participated in a military exercise and CSTO role-play in Kazakhstan (15). In 2018, during the Unbreakable Brotherhood, they elaborated joint actions to accommodate hypothetical refugees in the Urals (16). Even in 2022, amid the Ukrainian war, the meetings continued, discussing the participation of the Red Cross in the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force Vzaimodeistvie and the CSTO Peacekeeping Forces Unbreakable Brotherhood (17).

However, the bond is still in its infancy and it would not be fair to compare it to the type of relationship between the Red Cross and NATO. Suffice it to say that on Google, writing “ICRC CSTO”, the search results are just 114,000, while, writing in Russian “МККК ОДКБ”, the results are about 156,000, still few compared to the Atlantic counterpart. Also, even though LinkedIn has been banned in Russia, almost all Russians use it, thanks to VPNs. Doing a quick search, we notice that in the Russian Federation and the states connected to it, there is not the same attention for the Red Cross as is found among analysts (or presumed analysts) of the Western Bloc. The expression "Red Cross" rarely appears on the LinkedIn message boards of people close to Russian institutional circles, and it is extremely rare for them to attend postgraduate courses in Geneva, even remotely. What are the reasons? The truth is that the CSTO is perceived, even by many Slavs, as a military organization inferior to NATO... still too fossilized on bureaucratic aspects, either because it has a more recent history or because it must be cautious and must not raise possible perplexities /opposition of members who also have important contacts with the West (18). Furthermore, until a few years ago, great emphasis was given to the fight against terrorism. Afghanistan, for example, even before the NATO defeat, was closely monitored, fearing that Islamic terrorists could destabilize Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. But the Euro-Asian military organization was not, at least until 2014, equally attentive to the European side.

This big difference with NATO has made the CSTO less attractive to Russian analysts, and also the relative Ministries of Defense have judged it inconvenient to place many employees there, especially in the Marketing/Communication sector (particularly conspicuous for NATO). Therefore, since the audience of people is proportionally small, the relations with the Red Cross, in a specular way, are also less relevant. For many years, the Russian Federation and the subjugated states have preferred to monitor the Swiss institution through the national Red Cross, rather than through the CSTO. It was more immediate and cheaper, in a word more logical. Furthermore, even the Russians noticed that the Swiss organization was very close to Western strategic projects, and they considered that being interested in it was a losing battle, especially since from the 1990s to the early 2000s the Russian Federation was busy repairing a shattered economy. Putin had much else to think about! Monitoring the Red Cross to try to keep an eye on US projects was not a state priority at all. Furthermore, propaganda, even in the humanitarian sector, was not as important as it was for the Atlantic bloc, which was engaged in twenty-year wars in the Middle East. The US and its allies badly needed to sweeten their actions by washing their conscience through international humanitarian law, while the Russian Federation had no reason to resort to reputation washing. Finally, another aspect that should not be underestimated is that in the Russian world there is, for historical reasons, a greater propensity for secrecy, and also for exposing oneself to similar projects, posting on LinkedIn at regular intervals myriads of documents, collaboration proposals, Memorandum of Understanding and Strategic Concepts, is frowned upon as it would make any areas of interest and memoranda of understanding more evident. And so, for multiple reasons, the Red Cross, over the years, has established such a weak bond with the CSTO and, symmetrically, so strong with the Atlantic bloc that it has almost become the humanitarian arm of NATO. Even if he wouldn't admit it even under torture, a sane Russian diplomat would never completely trust the Red Cross, and he wouldn't be completely wrong.

(DON'T) THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER

The war in Ukraine is a godsend for Swiss war industries, but Switzerland, at least officially, does not send weapons to warring states, underlining its firm intention to remain a neutral state. For a whole year, it blocked the export of arms from third countries, preventing Germany from sending essential "Swiss-Made" ammunition to Ukraine, since Western states were short of it, but just when it was about to do the same with Spain (19), a parliamentary commission recommended to the plenum to authorize the re-export of arms to Ukraine (20), a first decisive step towards indirect shipments.

On the other hand, although Switzerland is increasingly siding with the USA, it would not be fair to compare it to the members of the Atlantic organization. Even if its soldiers participate in training courses managed by NATO and even if it has adopted the sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia (21), a considerable part of Swiss public opinion is aware of the dangerous change of course undertaken by its institutions and is strongly opposed to meddling in a world war. In recent months, the "Pro Switzerland" association, with the first signatory being the democentrist national councilor Thomas Aeschi (ZG), has promoted the Initiative for Neutrality, which intends to make it illegal to join military or defense alliances. If this initiative were to be successful, based on art. 54a, cooperation with such alliances would only be possible "in the event of a direct military attack on Switzerland" (22). And, therefore, even if the Russians do not consider Switzerland neutral enough to be able to mediate in a hypothetical negotiation, the point of no return has not yet been reached. Switzerland's "active neutrality" is shaky, perhaps a little too biased, but there is no incontrovertible crisis of credibility. Spaces for dialogue remain, and the people are closely tied to their peaceful and impartial identity.

References:

1-  https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/schweiz/crypto-affare-der-schweizer-geheimdienst-war-ausser-kontrolle-ld.1277613

2- https://tactical-systems.com.ua/bruggerthomet/

3- https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/polizisten-in-kiew-schiessen-mit-schweizer-waffen-954515796108

4- https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2022/11/19/talking-suppressors-karl-brugger/

5- https://www.parlament.ch/it/ratsbetrieb/suche-curia-vista/geschaeft?AffairId=20061056

6- https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/c3imli/heinrich_thomet/

7- https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-turpeinen-49580278/

8-https://cinemata.org/Members/fPcN_interCultural/videos/Blood_on_the_Cross_Xvid_720x576.avi/view

9-  https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_125839.htm

10- https://jfcbs.nato.int/page5964943/2022/fostering-long-lasting-cooperation-international-committee-of-the-red-cross-visits-jfc-brunssum

11- https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jqd4.htm

12-  https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/ruecktritt-des-ikrk-praesidenten-peter-maurer-vertraulichkeit-verschafft-uns-zugang

13- ICRC Annual Report 2021, Volume I, pag. 74 (https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DOC/icrc-annual-report-2021-1.pdf)

14- https://www.icrc.org/en/document/russian-federation-icrc-csto-dialogue

15- https://avarchives.icrc.org/Picture/138252

16-  https://eng.mil.ru/en/structure/okruga/centre/news/more.htm?id=12202482@egNews

17-  https://beshenkovichi.vitebsk-region.gov.by/en/regionn-en/view/csto-red-cross-discuss-humanitarian-situation-amid-growing-international-tensions-20996/

18-  https://odkb-csto.org/news/smi/prevrashchaetsya_li_odkb_v_protivnika_nato_/#loaded

19- https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/switzerland--blocks-weapons-exports--from-spain-to-ukraine/48196242

20- https://www.rsi.ch/news/svizzera/Riesportazione-di-armi-elvetiche-non-%C3%A8-pi%C3%B9-tab%C3%B9-15964882.html#:~:text=La%20riesportazione%20di%20armi%20verso,plenum%20di%20autorizzare%20tali%20cessioni.

21- In September 2022, the Swiss Parliament voted against a revision of the law to impose independent sanctions. Thus, Switzerland can only adopt sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the EU or the OECD. ( https://www.parlament.ch/de/services/news/Seiten/2022/20220929130242730194158159038_bsd115.aspx)

22-  https://www.rsi.ch/news/svizzera/Neutralit%C3%A0-via-alla-raccolta-firme-15770602.html

 

Imagine: Armed cows, goose step, Giorgio De Chirico, Helen Saunders, Stable Diffusion