MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian spy activities are on the rise in the country after Russian agents suspected of trying to penetrate sites in Switzerland were arrested, the Swiss intelligence agency said on Friday.
"I can not give a lot of details about Russian activities in Switzerland, but obviously there are more activities than before," Jean-Philippe Goudan, director of the Swiss intelligence agency NDP, told Reuters.
The Swiss authorities believe that two Russian spies targeted a Swiss chemical weapons testing facility. Prosecutors are also investigating an electronic attack on the offices of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Goudan said Switzerland is targeted because it hosts many international and non-governmental organizations, particularly in Geneva. Sports organizations such as the IOC could be targeted, he said.
"The different thing today is that the Russians have tried to work against our sensitive infrastructure, and this is a red line," he said.
The Swiss intelligence agency said in September it had worked with its British and Dutch counterparts to thwart a Russian plot targeting, according to press reports, a Swiss laboratory to test nerve gases such as Novichuk.
Britain says Moscow used Nuvichuk to try to kill former Russian spy Sergey Scrippal in the British city of Salisbury in March and accused two Russian men in absentia of trying to kill him.
