Centre Russian and Chinese espionage becomes the Switzerland, as reported by the Swiss intelligence services. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further intensified the rivalry between the major powers, making the country, which hosts international organizations, a candidate for espionage.
“THE Russia destroyed in Europe the rule-based peaceful order,” the Confederation Intelligence Service (SRC) points out in its annual report released today. SRC is also in charge of counterintelligence.
This means that “international forums for the promotion of peace and collective security, such as the UN and the OSCE, once again lost their effectiveness and a new stable world order is not on the horizon”, point out the Swiss espionage services.
Added to this is the trend “toward a bipolar world order, marked by systemic rivalry between USA and China». Therefore “foreign espionage activities, mainly Russian and Chinese, continue to represent an increased threat to Switzerland”, they underline.
Due to, among other things, its role as a host state for many international organizations, “the Switzerland is, on a European scale, among the countries in which the largest number of members of the Russian Intelligence services have been deployed under diplomatic cover».
This multitude of spies shows that the war in Ukraine is indeed “currently central to Switzerland’s political and security environment,” according to Swiss intelligence which has approx. 450 employees.
The importance of Switzerland as the center of Europe
The headquarters of the UN in Europe is located in Geneva, as are the headquarters of many of its agencies United States. There, too hundreds of diplomats meet regularly to participate in the various annual sessions of these institutions, whether it is the Human Rights Conference, which is now being held, the World Health Assembly, or even the International Labor Conference, offering so many opportunities for a spy to blend in with the crowdto make contacts and gather information in a city where many economic and political leaders also meet.
Switzerland’s term in the UN Security Council, from January 2023 and for the first time in its history, “heightens the threat espionage represents to the Swiss“, who work in the affairs of the Security Council. They inevitably become targets for spies.
The war in Ukraine is also forcing the SRC to take an interest in areas it has not previously focused on in order to prevent Russia from circumventing the laws it prohibit the export of military equipment relying on companies based in the Eurasian Economic Union; but also in Turkey or India, SRC also points out.
Source: News Beast
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