Oslo, Norway | AFP | Thursday 4/13/2023
Norway on Thursday announced the expulsion of 15 “intelligence officers” working at the Russian embassy in Oslo.
“The 15 intelligence officers have been engaging in activities that are not compatible with their diplomatic status,” Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in a statement.
According to the statement the “officers” had been declared “personae non gratae,” and that they must leave “shortly.”
Contacted by AFP, the Russian embassy in Oslo did not immediately respond with a comment.
The foreign ministry said that the decision had been made in response to a “changed security situation in Europe, which has led to an increased intelligence threat from Russia. ”
Norwegian intelligence services regularly point to Russia and China as the main espionage threats to the country, which is a member of NATO and shares a 198-kilometre (123-mile) border with Russia in the Arctic.
In April 2022, a few weeks after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Oslo, like several other European capitals, expelled three Russian diplomats suspected of espionage, which led Moscow to retaliate with the expulsion of three Norwegian diplomats.
The ministry said Thursday’s decision built upon the April decision and that the “activities of these intelligence officers have been monitored over time.”
The two countries, which have long had close ties, especially in the far north, have seen their relations deteriorate considerably as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
Although it is not a member of the European Union, Norway has adopted almost all the sanctions imposed on Russia by Brussels.
Despite the new expulsion Huitfeldt stressed that “Norway is seeking to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia, and that Russian diplomats are welcome in Norway.”
© Agence France-Presse