Police warn Foreign
Ministry about Russian
spying
The Cold War is allegedly over, but Norway's Police Security Service (PST) is convinced that Russian spies are as active as ever. So active, that PST has warned Foreign Ministry officials about specific suspected spies working as Russian diplomats.
 Norway's Foreign Ministry in Oslo is reportedly the target of Russian spies. PHOTO: STEIN J. BJØRGE No one from the Russian Embassy in Oslo would comment. PHOTO: TRYGVE INDRELID |
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Newspaper Aftenposten reported over the weekend that PST has deemed it necessary to show photographs of suspected spies to Norwegian foreign ministry workers.
The suspected spies work undercover as ordinary Russian diplomats, reported Aftenposten, and have paid calls inside the ministry.
PST, which would neither confirm nor deny Aftenposten's information, reportedly believes the alleged spies are attached to the most secret of all Russian´s Military Intelligence, GRU, which specializes in military intelligence.
The Russian diplomat/spies are reportedly most interested in Norwegian viewpoints on and activity in Svalbard, the entire Arctic region and NATO issues. They have focused most on the Foreign Ministry, but also may have been interested and active in other Norwegian ministries.
The Russians are said to be especially keen on Norwegian views on possible attempts by Finland and/or Sweden to join NATO. Russia is opposed to expansion of the NATO defense alliance.
Russian contact with their Norwegian counterparts is fully legal, but the transition from legal to illegal information gathering can be blurry. PST also is concerned that foreign intelligence specialists operating in Norway try to recruit persons with access to classified information.
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who has turned attention to the northern Arctic areas, has publicly praised what he calls Norway's "good relationship" with Russia. Støre met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the north just last week.
But Støre also has claimed that Norway "won't be naive." Norway, he said recently, "shares a border and seas with a Russia that's demonstrating newfound strength and showing its muscles."
He told a foreign policy insitute in Oslo last week that "Norway's responsibility for stability" in the area is permanent, while the value of natural resources in the area grows.
Efforts to obtain comment on the spying allegations from the Russian Embassy in Oslo were unsuccessful.
Morten Fyhn
Aftenposten English Web Desk
Nina Berglund
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