Before accepting the post of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Switzerland to Russia, Erwin Hofer participated in a diplomatic sensation - he prepared the entry of sovereign Switzerland into the UN. Mr. Hofer's activities in Moscow are also ambitious and ambitious: he went on working visits to different regions of Russia, from Kaliningrad to Lake Baikal, and discusses plans to reorganize his residence with leading modern architects ...Mr. Ambassador, how long have you been in Moscow? - To be precise, one year, one month and two weeks. However, I have repeatedly been in Russia before, beginning in the late eighties. I had the opportunity to participate in the establishment of a dialogue between our countries on the issues of interaction of international organizations. SALON: Were these visits related to your previous diplomatic activities? - Yes, I served as Director General of the Department of International Organizations at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My main task was to prepare the accession of our country to the UN, and as you may know, we successfully accomplished this task. In addition, for some time I was responsible for cultural ties and for Switzerland’s international cooperation in the field of science.S: How much does your daily life in Moscow differ from the life in Bern? - Very different. Moscow is a place where not a single day looks like the previous one. It is never boring here, and this is its main advantage over other cities. It is very interesting for me to live and work in Russia: your country is developing rapidly, and at the same time it is integrated into all important international processes - political, economic, social. Russia is huge, it is almost a whole continent, and in order to effectively fulfill its responsibilities, you must travel outside the capital - meet with representatives of regional authorities and public organizations, open the country for themselves and for their compatriots.S: Where have you already managed to go? - Last year I was in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, participated in the trip of foreign diplomats to Siberian cities and to Lake Baikal, was in Bashkiria, Krasnodar, Sochi. I started this year with a visit to the westernmost point of the country - to Kaliningrad, and in June I plan to get to Vladivostok. My Russian friends are delighted. They say that they themselves travel much less in their own country.S: Your residence is located in a cozy old mansion, it is much smaller than most of the buildings of diplomatic missions in Moscow. Is this an accident or a reflection of the ideology of a sovereign neutral country? - Rather, it is explained by the fact that our embassy in Moscow is one of the youngest - it is only fifty-nine years old. Moscow and Bern resumed diplomatic relations in forty-sixth year, much later than many. And when we were offered this building, we gladly agreed to settle here. During the Cold War, our countries had stable, but not very intensive relations, and this room was quite suitable for the embassy. And in the nineties there was a real boom, we had to expand very quickly. Some departments were forced to "move out." It is already clear that it is necessary to expand the visa department and the office, to take new employees, to increase the area. The flow of Russians applying for a Swiss visa and Swiss people who want to come to Russia is very large. Therefore, the Russian ambassador, DD. Cherkashina in Bern is also a lot of work.S: Since you settled in this building, have you changed anything here? - I have not changed anything in the interior, I am completely satisfied with the warm, cozy atmosphere of this house. But when I arrived, I immediately took up the restoration of the facade, which, I think, now looks very good. Now, the most important task I consider is the expansion of the operations department, we want to build another building on the embassy’s territory, which will accommodate all the necessary services and at the same time correspond to the style of the existing house. And I really want to restore the garden. I think everything will take several years together. I do not expect to meet my term of office, but at least you need to start this process. The building is a monument of architecture, it will be necessary to discuss with the city what can be done and what is not allowed. It will be necessary to go through a lot of approvals, and this, as you probably know, is not fast. And there will definitely be an architectural competition, Mario Botta has already told me that he wants to participate.S: Mr. Ambassador, you want to build a new building in Moscow and discuss these plans with the stars of architecture. In this regard, it would be interesting to know your opinion on how the Moscow center is being built up, of which you are a temporary resident. - I know that there are a lot of discussions in this society today. But for the sake of justice, it is worth considering this situation, starting from the tenth years of the last century. Before the revolution, the city was very beautiful, then came a completely new style, which was often established violently. There were voices that demanded to completely get rid of cultural heritage. All together, this led to the fact that Moscow architecture is now a very peculiar mixture of styles that you will not find in any other city in the world. Now, I think people understand that architecture can have a future only if it has a past. Recently, many historical buildings have been restored in record time, the order of use of architectural monuments is strictly regulated ... Moscow continues to be a mosaic of old and new, this is its charm, and the main thing here is to maintain a certain balance. Here you will not just have to face a difficult choice. This is well illustrated by the example of the disputes that are now going on regarding areas near the Kremlin, the Russia Hotel.S: Garden settlement is one of the oldest districts of Moscow, is it cozy for you? - Very, these are wonderful places: near the Kremlin, across the road Chistye Prudy ... You are in the heart of a huge city, while here it is quite green.S: Are you walking around? - I rarely travel outside the center, because I have little free time, but I love to walk here. Maybe we even met sometime on the boulevard or by the pond.
Passing the gallery 
