UNMASKED

Swiss Police Suspect Russian Spies Posed as Plumbers to Surveil Davos: Report

The alleged intelligence agents reportedly planned to spy on world leaders attending the World Economic Forum this week.

Police in Switzerland reportedly uncovered a Russian spying operation in Davos, where world leaders are meeting this week for the annual World Economic Forum. Police arrested two Russian men in the Alpine town last August after they were alerted to their suspiciously long stay in the resort, according to the Graubünden cantonal police department. The men had allegedly claimed diplomatic protections, but had not officially been registered. Swiss police and federal officials suspected that the two Russian men were intelligence agents posing as plumbers in order to bug the town with surveillance equipment. Their goal was to monitor the private conversations during the World Economic Forum for the Kremlin, according to Zürich’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. Among the leaders attending the event this year are President Trump, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, and Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam.