Grübel criticises Europe's involvement in the Ukraine conflict

Oswald Grübel, 82, ran Credit Suisse and then UBS. In an interview with Weltwoche he sharply criticises Western involvement in the Ukraine conflict. «What worries me most is the propaganda campaign around Ukraine», he says.

For the former banker, Europe and the United States should stay out of what he regards as a matter between Russia and Ukraine. In his view the conflict has weakened the European economy without producing concrete results.

His most explicit remarks concern the trade ties broken off with Moscow. «Having Russia as a supplier of raw materials for our processing industries made absolute sense», Grübel argues, saying an economic partnership would have given Europe more geopolitical influence.

Much of the responsibility, as he reads it, lies with the United States. He accuses Washington of preventing the emergence of an economically strong Europe. He also criticises the European Union's bureaucracy.

The Swiss chapter

The former executive extends his criticism to Switzerland's rapprochement with the EU. He fears that closer integration would compromise the country's independence and its referendum-based democratic system. The argument recurs often in the domestic debate, put here by someone who ran two of the country's largest banks for years.

On the collapse of Credit Suisse, the bank he had led before moving to UBS, Grübel complains of inadequate supervision by the Swiss authorities in monitoring how the bank was run.

The positions set out in the interview commit neither UBS nor any institution: Grübel no longer holds operational roles. What remains is the voice of a man the Swiss financial centre listened to for a long time, and who now ties together the war, European trade policy and the relationship between Bern and Brussels in a single line of reasoning.