About 80% of Russia’s commodities are traded through Switzerland, making it critical to Russian exports
The central Swiss city of Zug is not given to political protests, but last week residents took to the streets carrying placards saying “No to Putin’s War” and “Blood Money”, as they decried the town’s role as host to one of the largest concentrations of Russian businesses outside Russia.
Above Zug’s main shopping centre sits Metal Trade Overseas, a sales unit of Norilsk Nickel, whose biggest investor is Vladimir Potanin, Russia’s richest man, according to the Bloomberg billionaires index. A few doors down, across from the train station are Rusal Marketing and Rusal Products, the main trading arms of United Co Rusal International that supply aluminium to hundreds of clients around the world.
Sanctioning Abramovich, the UK government said that Evraz is or has been involved in activities that have aided President Vladimir’s Putin’s war against Ukraine, including “potentially supplying steel to the Russian military which may have been used in the production of tanks.” A receptionist at Metal Trade Overseas said no-one was available to comment, while its parent company Norilsk Nickel didn’t return messages seeking comment.
Twenty firms identified as Russian by the canton paid Sf31m in cantonal and municipal taxes in 2020. That might not seem like much, but its Zug’s low-tax regime that catapulted the one-time sleepy village into a global commodities hub over the past half-century, becoming a base for controversial figures like Marc Rich. With a population of 127,000, Zug, which has nearly one registered company for every two taxpayers, has the lowest corporate tax rate of any Swiss canton.
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