By JAN M. OLSEN (Associated Press)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s authorities mentioned Thursday that it was expelling 15 Russian diplomats from the nation, saying they have been suspected of spying whereas working on the Russian Embassy in Oslo.
Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt mentioned the transfer was “an important measure to counter and reduce the scope of Russian intelligence activities in Norway, and thereby secure our national interests.”
The Russians declared persona non grata “must leave Norway within a short time,” Huitfeldt mentioned, including: “We will not grant visas to intelligence officers who apply for a visa to Norway.”
The minister declined to say whether or not the federal government was performing in response to a particular incident, referring inquiries to Norway’s home safety company PST for particulars. The authorities mentioned the actions of the expelled diplomats have been “incompatible with their diplomatic status.”
“We are not talking about regular diplomats, but intelligence officers under diplomatic cover. Their activities are a threat to Norwegian interests,” Huitfeldt mentioned.
Norwegian newspaper VG described Thursday’s expulsions as essentially the most the Scandinavian nation has ordered at one time involving Russian diplomats.
The Russian Embassy in Norway referred to as the Norwegian authorities’s determination “an extremely unfriendly step” and promised Moscow would take “retaliatory measures,” which in such a case sometimes contain in-kind expulsions.
Huitfeldt reacted throughout a day information convention, saying: “Russia has no reason to respond. We have Norwegian diplomats stationed in Russia, but none of them are undercover intelligence officers.”
She referred to as Russia “an unpredictable neighbor” and “many European countries in the past year have expelled hundreds of Russian intelligence officers under diplomatic cover.”
At the identical time, she pressured that the federal government in Oslo desires “normal diplomatic relations with Russia, and that Russian diplomats are welcome in Norway”
“We do not want people who claim they are diplomats and who are actually are intelligence officers,” she mentioned. “We cannot accept that.”
NATO-member Norway has a 198 kilometer-long (123-mile) border with Russia within the Arctic.
VG mentioned that together with the expelled diplomats, Russia had about 40 individuals working at its missions in Norway, which embrace the embassy in Oslo and consulates in Kirkenes and Barentsburg.
Barentsburg, positioned on the distant Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, is a Russian coal-mining city of about 500 individuals. Under a 1920 treaty, Norway has sovereignty over the archipelago, which is greater than 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of the Norwegian mainland, however different signatory nations have rights to discover its pure sources.
A yr in the past, Norway expelled three Russian diplomats it recognized as intelligence officers.
A person whom the Norwegian Police Security Service alleged used a false title and id whereas truly working for one in every of Russia’s intelligence companies additionally was arrested final yr. He is awaiting trial in Norway.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”