NATO member Norway has declared 15 officials of the Russian Embassy in Oslo to be “unwanted,” saying they were intelligence operatives acting under diplomatic cover.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said the April 13 expulsions came “in response to the changed security situation in Europe,” which has led to an increase in Russian intelligence activity. The Russians would have to leave Norway “shortly,” it added.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry told the state-run TASS news agency that “Russia will make an appropriate response.”
“The 15 intelligence officers have been engaging in activities that are not compatible with their diplomatic status,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said, although she insisted that Oslo was seeking “to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia.”
Huitfeld said the expulsions were necessary “to counter and reduce the scope of Russian intelligence activities in Norway,” adding that “Russia currently poses the greatest intelligence threat to Norway.”
"We want Russia to continue to have a functioning diplomatic mission in Norway, but we will not accept that diplomatic missions are misused for the purposes of carrying out covert intelligence activities," Huitfeld added.
The 15 officials account for about one-quarter of the Russian diplomats currently accredited in Norway.
The heightened tensions between Oslo and Moscow could complicate the work of the Arctic Council, an international forum for Arctic-region countries. Moscow currently holds the rotating chair of the organization, but Norway is scheduled to take the reins on May 11.
Amid soaring tensions between Russia and NATO countries over Moscow’s unprovoked February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, there have been a spate of diplomatic expulsions across Europe.
In the weeks following the invasion, about 20 European countries expelled more than 300 Russian diplomats. On April 5, 2022, Germany expelled 40 Russians, Italy 30, France 35, Denmark 15, and Sweden 3. Norway expelled three Russians at the time.
Nordic countries Finland and Sweden applied to join the NATO alliance in May 2022. Finland’s membership was formalized on April 4, more than doubling Russia’s land border with members of the north Atlantic alliance. Sweden’s bid is expected to be completed in the near future.