And access to the Baltic Sea and to the Black Sea is worth, jack sht, if access to the Atlantic from there can be blocked by multiple countries. It is actually worse than access of Austria to the Seas. In the case of Austria goods can be delivered within the Single Market to an Atlantic port. The only access to the Oceans is at the Pacific but the Transsiberian Railway doesn’t have nearly the capacity to make that Russia’s main port and there is not that much of anything in the far east to need a huge port. It is good as a military harbour but terrible for projecting maritime power to Europe where Russia is engaged in imperialist wars of conquest.

It is way less dumb than you think it is. As long as climate change is not doing something about it, Russia’s access to international waters is a lot more compromised than many think. Russia’s main ports have access to the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. In both cases other countries can block access of Russian ships to the Atlantic. Other than that, the only ports with all year round usable access to international waters is in Russia’s far east (Vladivostok primarily), which can compensate a bit but not nearly replace the ports in the European parts of Russia.

Kallas? I did not see that coming. Time to reevaluate.

What the SVP wanted to get adpoted would force the end of freedom of movement with the EU if population in Switzerland only mildly increases (even if that were to happen purely due to domestic population growth btw). In that case there are guillotine clauses that would automatically kill major treaties with the EU, including the one on being in the Single Market. This is pretty much automatic, as Switzerland would violate the conditions based on which it is part of the Single Market and one-sidedly significantly change the deal. Freedom of Movement is, after all, a majory pillar of the Single Market itself.

Switzerland is in the EU’s Single Market and has other important agreements in place with the EU. A key reason for that referendum was the SVP’s ambition to force Switzerland out of the Single market. They can’t get the Swiss to agree to that so they try it in hidden ways, this time with playing the anti-foreigner card, while not mentioning that this is designed in reality to force Switzerland out of the Single Market. So yes, this referndum had a lot to do with the EU. The majority of Swiss voters was not fooled though, again. But also this time, the SVP will not take no for an answer and will try again, with a different construct.

The SVP sold it as anti-foreigner thing but it was really about forcing Switzerland out of the Single Market, a Swiss eqivalent for Brexit. Again. The SVP doesn’t take no for an answer.