Federal Council agrees to investigation into alleged Swiss-Russian spying affair

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland can open spying investigations into the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS). The affair centres on an FIS cyber team and a collaboration with the controversial software company Kaspersky. Highly sensitive data allegedly flowed out – and ended up with Russian intelligence services. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The Federal Council has approved a request to initiate such investigations. It was submitted because of a possible breach of official secrecy, possible prohibited acts carried out on behalf of a foreign state and political intelligence, the office confirmed to Swiss public radio, SRF, and the Keystone-ATS news agency. The latter two offences may be punishable by a custodial sentence of up to three years. The request was submitted to the Federal Council by the Swiss justice ministry. The federal government has given itself more than six months to make its decision, according to SRF. At the ...