Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Where today’s briefing features some unexpected finds which had lain buried in the mountains, at least until now…

© Keystone / Olivier Maire

In the news: more migration, new ambassador, and a collared hacker.

• The number of illegal migrants detected by Swiss police quadrupled in October compared to the same month last year. Border authorities said on Friday 7,891 people were stopped last month without authorisation, a monthly increase of over 2,000 on September. Most had arrived via Switzerland’s eastern and southern borders and mainly originated from Afghanistan and Tunisia.
• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree confirming the selection of Iryna Venediktova as Ukraine’s next ambassador to Switzerland. Venediktova worked as Ukraine’s prosecutor general before being fired in July 2022. It’s not clear when she will take up the job in Bern. The current ambassador to Switzerland, Artem Rybchenko, has been in the role since June 2018.
• An FBI-wanted Ukrainian hacker has been arrested in Switzerland. Vyacheslav Penchukov, indicted by US authorities in 2012, is accused of coordinating a group of hackers who stole millions of dollars by pirating online American bank account details. Swiss authorities confirmed the arrest of a Ukrainian citizen and have authorised extradition. The suspect is so far refusing this, they say.

Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Tunnel visions: precious stones and secret bunkers.

We all like stories about secrets buried in the heart of mountains, and the current drilling of a second road tunnel under the Gotthard in central Switzerland is not disappointing. Just three weeks ago, miners stumbled on hundreds of kilos of crystalline rock: quartz, apophyllite, and – notably – pink fluorite of “outstanding” quality. Now they have bumped into a Swiss military bunker, the Tages-Anzeiger reports. The paper writes that work has to be carried out on at least one secret army bunker to accommodate the tunnel, but that the military is keeping quiet about whether it has to completely relocate. It’s also keeping shtum about the cost of these complications. Such bunkers, scattered around the country since the Second World War, are particularly frequent in and around the Gotthard, which is a key north-south transit route and – in the past – a strategic point of defence against any Italian invasion.

Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

Mountain monopoly: snapping up Alpine bargains.

For all those discouraged by the skyrocketing price of holiday homes in the Alps (see yesterday’s briefing), 20 Minuten reports today on a cheaper alternative. Monopoly has released a winter edition of its classic capitalist board game, the paper writes, and this time it features the top Swiss ski resorts. Instead of shafting and double-dealing your friends and family members to try to control iconic streets like Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse, this winter monopoly allows you to take over entire resorts like Verbier (pictured) or Saas-Fee. And it “only” costs CHF70! SWI swissinfo.ch is not trying to give free publicity to Monopoly, but maybe if property-hunters stuck to the board game, we could avoid a mountain housing bubble…