Swiss police allege Russian spies tried to infiltrate Davos disguised as plumbers

No, this isn't the leaked plot for the next James Bond movie.

Back in August, Swiss police uncovered what appears to be a Russian attempt to secretly surveil the World Economic Forum happening this week, Zürich’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper first reported. In what sounds like a ridiculous whodunnit, a pair of suspected Russian spies posed as plumbers and stayed in the Swiss resort of Davos for an "unusually long" time before their alleged intentions were discovered, the Graubünden police department confirmed to the Financial Times.

The two men had been staying in Davos for an unspecified amount of time before Swiss police were "alerted to their unusually long stay in the high-end resort," the Financial Times writes. The men then "claimed diplomatic protections, but had not been registered as official diplomats with Bern," the Times continues. And while there was no indication the men had committed any crimes, "police and Swiss federal officials suspected the pair of being Russian intelligence agents, posing as tradesmen in order to install surveillance equipment at key facilities around the town" in anticipation of this week's WEF.

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It's unclear just what Russia would've learned from the WEF, which is packed with events that eventually get reported to the public. But "the gathering is nevertheless a rare concentration of global power and influence that is tempting to spymasters," including visits from President Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Times says. Read more at the Financial Times.