Swiss intelligence warns of rising espionage threat from Russia, China

By AFP | 2025-07-16

The threat from espionage is high in Switzerland as global insecurity increases, with the main threats emanating from Russia and China, the country's Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) warned.

"The security situation around Switzerland is deteriorating from year to year," the FIS said on July 2 in its annual survey.

"There are signs of a looming global confrontation primarily between the United States on the one hand and China and Russia on the other," the FIS said.

The global context has direct implications for Switzerland, a neutral country that hosts multiple international organizations.

"For decades, Switzerland has been an important theatre of [foreign intelligence] operations in Europe, as it offers large numbers of rewarding targets," the FIS said.

Foreign spies "pass themselves off as diplomatic personnel, business people, media representatives or tourists, for example," it said.

"The greatest espionage threat ... still comes from Russia and China," it said.

They want to compromise "federal authorities, police forces, companies, international organizations, foreign diplomatic missions, media representatives, colleges, universities and other research institutions," the Switzerland's Security 2025 report said.

Abductions, sabotage, assassinations

Switzerland's security environment has "deteriorated drastically" since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Swiss Defense Minister Martin Pfister said in the study.

Moscow and Beijing will continue conducting intelligence operations in Switzerland against Western states, including preparations for hybrid warfare, the FIS predicted.

"Switzerland faces an increasing risk of being used illicitly for the preparation or perpetration of abductions, sabotage and assassinations abroad," it said.

Meanwhile the FIS expects no decrease in the amount of espionage against exiled opposition figures and journalists living in Switzerland.

"Geneva, as an international meeting point, will remain a hotspot for illegal intelligence," it added.

"We have never experienced such a density of threats. We are not mere observers: we are directly affected," FIS director Christian Dussey told AFP.

The agency's strategic radar was tracking 15 international crisis hot spots, said Dussey.

Foreign spies are interested in Switzerland's technological innovation sector, he added.

The intensifying competition among major powers made Switzerland a preferred target for evading sanctions imposed on Russia, said the FIS.

"Russia purchases [items necessary to the war] from friendly states or continues to procure them in Western countries, including Switzerland, by circumventing sanctions," the FIS said.

Furthermore, the agency said the terror threat was elevated in Switzerland, primarily from individuals inspired by Islamist ideology.

"The radicalization of minors ... occurs online in many cases and often over a shorter timescale than is the case with adults," it said.