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Russian embassy to Switzerland dismisses media report of Russian spy’s detention

In its Sunday edition, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung said that for the first time in the newest history, a "Russian agent" had been detained, arrested and convicted in the country

GENEVA, February 18. /TASS/. The Russian embassy in Switzerland rejects media reports about an alleged detention of ‘a Russian agent’ in the country last summer, an embassy official has told TASS.

"This report is just another fake news report. This attempt to fuel spy hysteria from nothing is regrettable," the Russian diplomat said.

In its Sunday edition, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung said that for the first time in the newest history, a "Russian agent" had been detained, arrested and convicted in the country. According to the paper, a man whose car had mock Italian license plates was detained in Geneva on July 27. In the trunk, police found six mobile phones, a drone, a camera and a laptop.

Later, investigators reportedly established that the man was a foreign spy. In January, he was sentenced to six months in prison without a public trial. The man walked free from the courtroom, because his remand time counted as prison time.

The citizenship and identity of the man was never disclosed, but SonntagsZeitung claimed that it was a "Russian agent" tasked with spying on his compatriots in Switzerland, possibly Russian dissidents or tycoons. The suspect denied all charges.

The publication coincided with the Crypto AG scandal, that broke out after a joint journalistic inquiry by SRF (Swiss TV) program 'Rundschau', Germany’s ZDF broadcaster and the Washington Post. According to journalists, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the BND (German Federal Intelligence Service) secretly purchased a stake in Swiss company Crypto AG in Zug, producing encryption devices and selling them worldwide. As a result, devices manufactured by the company were rigged to give US and German special services an opportunity to crack codes. The report suggests that Swiss authorities were aware of those activities and covered them up.

The Swiss government and a parliamentary commission announced last week they would conduct their own inquiry into the matter, because the scandal threatened Switzerland’s reputation of a neutral country.

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