Norway Declares Unwanted 15 Intelligence Officers at Russian Embassy in Oslo
In a press release issued on Thursday, April 13, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has noted that the decision to declare unwanted these 15 Russian nationals is based on the new security policy situation, which has led to an increased intelligence threat from Russia.
Norway has been monitoring the same people for some time now, before the decision to declare them personae non-grata. They now have to leave the country within a very short time, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
“This is an important measure to counter and reduce the scope of Russian intelligence activities in Norway, and thereby secure our national interests,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anniken Huitfeldt, has said.
She also has pointed out that right now, Norway considers Russia as its biggest intelligence threat, and as such, the country is undertaking the necessary measures to prevent Russian intelligence officers from operating under diplomatic cover in Norway.
In its statement, the Ministry has also announced that the Norwegian embassy in Moscow will not issue visas to intelligence officers who apply for a visa to Norway.
Previously, in April 2022, another three Russian intelligence officers had been expelled from the country. At the time a dozen of European Union Member States had declared unwanted hundreds of Russian officials living in their territory.
At the time, Denmark had expelled 15 persons who were working at the Russian embassy in Copenhagen, whereas Estonia had expelled 14 Russian nationals at first, and another two later, in separate cases.
France, Germany, Austria, Latvia, and Lithuania had also declared unwanted tens of Russian citizens, mainly working at the Russian embassies.
However, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that in spite of the most recent decision, the country wants normal diplomatic relations with Russia, and that Russian diplomats are welcome in Norway.
“What we are doing now is aimed exclusively at unwanted intelligence activities. We want to preserve a functioning diplomatic representation, but will not accept that diplomatic representation is misused for covert intelligence activities,” Minister Huitfeldt further said.
The invasion of Ukraine has been going on for almost 14 months now, and the EU countries have continuously imposed political and economic measures against the Russian Federation, its busineses and officials, in a bid to push President Putin to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.
Most recently, Austria has rejected the Schengen visa applications filed by the Russian representatives to attend the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee in Vienna.
The deputy head of the Russian mission to Vienna, Ernest Chernukhin, who participated on the opening day of the meeting on April 11, has called the move “an act of political pressure on Russia,” accusing Austria of violating its obligations under the 1995 agreement that had established this country as a UN headquarter.