Even though Lefort died fairly early in Peter's reign (1699), quite a few other Swiss soldiers, adventurers, educators, and scholars made a contribution in the history of Russian Empire.

The Swiss-Italian architect Domenico Trezzini was the general manager of the construction of Saint Petersburg until 1712,[1] and is credited with the creation of Petrine Baroque, characteristic of that city's early architecture.

While the results of these campaigns were inconclusive, they earned Suvorov the rank of Generalissimo, and became (in particular, the retreat over Panix Pass) a favorite topic for Russian painters.

In the 19th century Switzerland became a popular refuge with Russian anti-Czar émigrés, due to its culture of freedom, absence of a particularly close relationship between the Swiss republican government and that of Imperial Russia, and on occasions, its neutrality in wars as well.

[6] The tranquility turned into tragedy on 1 July 2002, when a Bashkirian charter flight collided with a DHL cargo plane just before entering Swiss air space from Germany.

Having lost his entire family, Vitaly Kaloyev killed the air traffic controller, Peter Nielsen, whom he deemed responsible for the accident.

In 2018, a confidential intelligence report compiled for the Swiss government found that one in four Russian diplomats based in Switzerland is a spy.

[11] In 2020, the Swiss police made the public aware that two "Russian spies", one of whom was disguised as a plumber, had travelled to Davos with diplomatic passports prior to the Annual Meeting.

[21] In March 2022, the business association Economiesuisse informed that its sanctions against Russia would have a limited effect on the Swiss export economy.

Russia will require additional controls for Swiss-Russian businesses in the aftermath of the severe sanctions Switzerland imposed on Russian entities.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said the plan was not acceptable as it does not consider Switzerland to be a neutral country after Bern joined sanctions against Russia.

[27] Swiss President Ignazio Cassis spoke briefly with Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov after the 77th UN General Assembly Session on 22 September 2022.

Cassis told the assembly earlier that Switzerland would not recognize the result of the referendums in the disputed Donbass regions of Ukraine.

[31] As of June 2022, the "official" amount of non-sanctioned Russian-owned assets in Switzerland was CHF 46.1 billion, divided among 123 person or entities and 7,548 business relationships.

[34] Leading Russian opposition figures, including financier Bill Browder, have criticised Switzerland by saying the country is not doing nearly enough, while granting Russia too many loopholes in commodities trading, real estate investing or banking sector.

[35][36][37] According to the Wall Street Journal in 2022, a front named "Bridgewaters" has been mainly used to hide assets of some Russian billionaires around the world, including in Switzerland.

[40] In May 2023, OFAC imposed new sanctions on Swiss-based DuLac Capital Ltd and its Swiss director for Russia in Dubai (Anselm Oskar Schmucki).

[44] On 17 April 2024, the lower house of the Swiss parliament voted not to join the international task force for enforcing sanctions against Russia.

Switzerland, however does adhere to all sanctions the E.U and the U.S. is imposing but did not favour to join the REPO task force, which would confiscate frozen assets to finance the rebuilding of war-torn Ukraine.

According to Justice Minister Beat Jans, Switzerland had an interest not to join the task force in order "to continue to offer good services".

Switzerland is planning to host a two-day Ukraine peace conference in June 2024 in the historic alpine resort Burgenstock.

[45] According to the Tages Anzeiger in 2024, Swiss banks, including Julius Bär maintained business relations with people close to President Putin, despite international sanctions.

[53] Switzerland mainly exports medicines, medical products, watches and machinery to Russia, while the chief imports are gold, precious metals and aluminum.

[58] KSL, another Russian coal company linked to President Putin with offices in Zug, has been banned from operating in Switzerland since September 2022.

[73] Some of these companies, such as ABB, Holcim, Sulzer and Nestlé, have suspended or significantly reduced their operations in Russia, while Christoph Blocher's EMS-Chemie or Liebherr continue "business as usual".

[80][81] But a provision in Swiss law allows its companies’ overseas subsidiaries to trade Russian commodities (including gold or oil) as long as they are “legally independent".

[91] Sergei Mikhailov, a Russian businessman and alleged leader of the “Solntsevskaya Bratva” criminal syndicate was arrested in Geneva in 1996 and incarcerated for two years.

[92][93] Swiss police arrested Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin while en route to Zermatt in 2021 and extradited him to the United States on charges of commercial espionage.

[100] According to United States and European security officials, Alina Kabaeva has spent long periods of time in Switzerland since 2015, at residences in Lugano and Cologny.

[104] According to Cyprus Confidential documents released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 2023, at least 20 Russian oligarchs had Swiss bank accounts.