SINCE LATE FEBRUARY, WHEN Russian troops invaded Ukraine, over 500 Russian diplomats have been expelled from Western countries.
Even former Russian allies have contributed to the growing list of expulsions —most recently Bulgaria, which
ousted
a near-unprecedented 70 Russian diplomats last week, citing espionage
concerns. Amidst that sea of expulsions, Switzerland remains an island.
It is among the few European countries that have yet to officially expel
Russian diplomats. Abiding by its centuries-old policy of neutrality,
it has resisted calls to take sides in the intelligence war between the
West and Russia.
“No-Questions-Asked” Approach to Espionage
Russia has been able to take advantage of
Switzerland’s neutrality policy since February. Instead of returning to
Moscow, at least some of the expelled Russian diplomats have been
reposted to Switzerland. They continue to operate there under a
“no-questions-asked” policy, which has prevailed since the days of the
Cold War. For this and other reasons
(i.e. proximity to prime intelligence targets, safety, advanced
telecommunications systems), Switzerland has been a major intelligence
hub for decades. According
to the Nachrichtendienst des Bundes (NDB), Switzerland’s Federal
Intelligence Service, the past few years have witnessed higher levels of
activity by foreign intelligence services than any other period since
the Cold War.
Russia’s Intelligence Presence in Switzerland
During that time, Russia has been able to
build a pan-European espionage hub in the small alpine state. That is
the conclusion of a report by Jonas Roth, which was published last week in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ),
Switzerland’s newspaper of record. The report, entitled “So Spioniert
Russland in der Schweiz” (“How Russian spies operate in Switzerland”),
features commentary by several experts and government officials. One
source tells Roth that, despite the intense diplomatic pressure Russia
has faced globally since February, its espionage structures in Swiss
cities like Geneva and Bern “are still intact”.
How many Russian intelligence officers
are currently operating in Switzerland? According to the report, at
least a third of Russia’s 220-strong diplomatic presence in the country
consists of intelligence officers. These 70 or so intelligence officers
represent all three of Russia’s primary intelligence agencies, namely
the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Main Directorate of the
Armed Forces’ General Staff (GRU), and the Federal Security Service
(FSB). Officers from these agencies handle an unknown number of
informants and agents; these are Swiss or third-country nationals, who
provide the Russians with intelligence on a regular basis. Special
activities are carried out by Russian intelligence personnel who travel
to Switzerland on an ad hoc basis.
Russian Intelligence Targets in Switzerland
According to the NZZ report,
much of the work of Russian intelligence in Switzerland consists of
current-affairs reporting that is of interest to Moscow. More than half
of that is derived from publicly available —also known as ‘open’—
sources, such as Swiss media outlets. Russian operations officers handle
local agents, who provide them with classified or otherwise restricted
information of a political, military or economic nature. All other
missions —mostly special activities— rely on intelligence professionals
who travel to Switzerland, either to operate there, or to prepare for
missions elsewhere in Europe. Lastly, there are Russian
cyber-operations, which do not usually require the physical presence of
operatives in Switzerland.
Switzerland offers a target-rich environment for Russian intelligence. The NZZ
report mentions numerous international organizations that are
headquartered on Swiss soil. These currently number over 250 and include
the European Broadcasting Union, the European Organization for Nuclear
Research, Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Telecommunication
Union, and the World Health Organization, among others. In addition to
these targets, Switzerland is frequently the site of high-level
diplomatic meetings, and hosts numerous high-powered research
institutions, including ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Lausanne. Lastly, Russian intelligence operatives engage
in surveillance —and occasionally intimidation— of members of the
Russian expatriate community in Switzerland, who openly criticize the
Kremlin.
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