Norway’s security service said on Friday the country expelled 15 Russian diplomats this week and they have been trying to recruit sources, intercept communications and buy advanced technology.
The agency’s counterintelligence officer, Inger Hoogland, said in a news conference that the actual bodies employing the diplomats are the Main Directorate of Military Intelligence, the Federal Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service, according to Reuters.
He also added that the expulsion “reduces the risk of a Russian intelligence threat in Norway reducing in permanently the number of intelligence officials working under diplomatic cover”.
The biggest expulsion
Interestingly, Norway’s decision represents the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats, and is the latest in a series of similar moves by Western countries since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
According to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the measure will expel around a third of Russia’s 40 or so diplomats in Norway.
On Thursday, however, Russia said it would respond to the expulsion.
Strengthening of security measures
NATO member Norway shares a border with Russia in the Arctic.
And it has tightened its security measures since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, especially around oil and gas facilities, after which is now the largest supplier of gas in Europe after the decline in Russian flows.
