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Russia

Oligarchs Beware: Switzerland Agrees To Give Bank Info To Russian Finance Ministry

Bad news for Russian tax evaders who’ve counted on Swiss bank accounts, as Switzerland agrees to turn over information to Moscow about account holders, particularly in relation to tax investigations.

Ruble banknotes
Ruble banknotes

Worldcrunch *NEWSBITES

MOSCOW - Russia and Switzerland have signed an agreement that will give the Russian Finance Ministry access to information about Russian citizens' accounts in Switzerland.

The agreement, signed over the weekend, formalizes an existing information exchange accord between the two counties regarding Russian citizens with Swiss bank accounts.

Switzerland has long been a safe harbor for investors. But in the wake of the financial crisis, it has been forced to sign agreements with a number of countries regarding the disclosure of bank account information.

The Swiss government was forced to take this unpopular step after the G20 summit in April of 2009, in the middle of the financial crisis. As a result of the meeting, Switzerland was placed on a so-called ‘grey" list of countries who have formally agreed to share financial information if other governments request it in relation to a tax investigation, but have not actually fulfilled their obligations under those agreements.

According to Swiss media, in order to get off the black list, the Swiss government will need to sign at least 12 bilateral agreements regarding information disclosure. At the moment, Switzerland has signed agreements with the U.S., Denmark, Norway, France, Mexico and Luxembourg, and some Swiss banks have made additional agreements with governments on their own.

The latest agreement allows the Russian Finance Ministry to obtain information about potential tax cheats if there is sufficient suspicion of tax evasion or fraud. The agreement was signed just before Monday's resignation of Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin, following his criticism of President Dimitry Medvedev's candidacy to become Prime Minister after the next presidential elections that are expected to return Vladimir Putin to the top job.

Read more from Kommersant in Russian

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*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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Geopolitics

Senegal's Democratic Unrest And The Ghosts Of French Colonialism

The violence that erupted following the sentencing of opposition politician Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison left 16 people dead and 500 arrested. This reveals deep fractures in Senegalese democracy that has traces to France's colonial past.

Image of Senegalese ​Protesters celebrating Sonko being set free by the court, March 2021

Protesters celebrate Sonko being set free by the court, March 2021

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — For a long time, Senegal had the glowing image of one of Africa's rare democracies. The reality was more complicated than that, even in the days of the poet-president Léopold Sedar Senghor, who also had his dark side.

But for years, the country has been moving down what Senegalese intellectual Felwine Sarr describes as the "gentle slope of... the weakening and corrosion of the gains of Senegalese democracy."

This has been demonstrated once again over the last few days, with a wave of violence that has left 16 people dead, 500 arrested, the internet censored, and a tense situation with troubling consequences. The trigger? The sentencing last Thursday of opposition politician Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison, which could exclude him from the 2024 presidential elections.

Young people took to the streets when the verdict was announced, accusing the justice system of having become a political tool. Ousmane Sonko had been accused of rape but was convicted of "corruption of youth," a change that rendered the decision incomprehensible.

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