About 20,000 registered reports: the war in Ukraine fuels exchanges between secret services

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc”>

The war in Ukraine leads to lively exchanges between the secret services. The wires are also running high at the Federal Intelligence Service (NDB). This communicates with more than 100 partner services.

NDB spokeswoman Carole Wälti confirmed this to Blick: “In 2023, the NDB received approximately 14,120 reports from foreign partner services, and 5,586 reports were sent by NDB to foreign partner services.” In total, almost 20,000 notifications have been sent. The year before, a record was reached with a total of 22,000 reports.

The war in Ukraine has an impact

“This persistently high number of reports is partly due to the war in Ukraine,” says Wälti. The Secret Service does not disclose more detailed information about the contents of these reports.

However, last year’s security report makes it clear where the focus is for the secret service. “Russia’s war against Ukraine remains the center of Swiss security policy for the time being,” writes the NDB, led by Christian Dussey. Russia has destroyed the rules-based peace order in Europe.

This also has consequences for Switzerland, where the threat “of foreign, especially Russian and Chinese, espionage” remains high. As a host state for numerous international organizations, many ‘members of the Russian intelligence service are deployed under diplomatic cover’ in this country.

More than 400 spies

The number of Swiss spies has increased enormously in recent years. While there were 237 full-time jobs in 2010, the NDB counted more than 400 full-time jobs last year; 434 full-time jobs have been budgeted for the current year. There are also about 200 positions in the cantonal state security services.

The budget also remains high: 123 million francs has been allocated for this year. 15 million francs will go to the cantons to finance their cantonal state security services. The cantons of Zurich (2.2 million), Geneva (2 million) and Bern (1.8 million) receive the highest support.

Another 3 million francs will be reserved for “cantonal observation units”. Which cantons benefit from this remains a secret. The NDB does not wish to comment publicly on its operational activities and procedures.

Source:Blick