Aftenposten names three Russian diplomats in Oslo and writes that they are affiliated with Russian military intelligence (GRU).
Before the three came to Norway as diplomats, two of them had registered their place of residence in GRU’s headquarters in Moscow, Russia, records show, writes Aftenposten.
Since they are diplomats, they have immunity. This means that they can do whatever they want without risking legal persecution in Norway.
The newspaper has mapped the Foreign Ministry’s names lists of Russian diplomats in Norway and compared their addresses with databases from Moscow, which show their official address before traveling to Oslo.
“Our experience is that very few people realize that these are intelligence officers,” says the Police Security Service (PST).
According to PST, Russian espionage has the greatest potential to harm Norwegian interests, according to threat assessments.
Head of Communications Trude Måseide in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Norwegian authorities expect diplomats to follow laws and regulations in the country where they serve.
– “Furthermore, the activity of diplomats must of course be within the task of the embassy. If one is to get acquainted with the conditions in the recipient state, it must be done legally,” she says.
The Russian Embassy characterizes Aftenposten’s information as “dissemination of unreliable, false or illegally obtained information”.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
I am truly amazed the headline didn’t *scream* RUSSIAN *ENEMY* GRU AGENTS HERE IN NORWAY! 🙂
ANY Russian military attache in a NATO member country is (obviously) going to be a GRU intelligence officer, since the Russians feel so threatened by the West and its military arm NATO, especially after our Budapest peace treaty breaking Kiev coup, which threatens the Russians with the possibility of an “interventionist”/aggressor – Kosovo, Libya, and now Jens Stoltenberg is even threatening Syria – NATO’s bases all the way up to Kharkov Ukraine at their throats. (So I have copied to PST e-mails it should know about, which I have sent or copied to the Russian military attache.)
The Russians want deals (not a war up here or anywhere after their 27 million dead in WW2) and are a threat only to the extent we are threatening *them*. And now that The Nordic Balance of not stationing foreign military ground forces in Norway has been overthrown, they do feel very threatened up here.
So the potential for harm being done to Norwegians and my/our loved ones here, comes from the military escalation being initiated by the West here, not the East, and the British – not the Russians – are behind that most of all.
The rogue British intelligence “Integrity Initiative” op reportedly (ABC Nyheter) came through Norway trying to recruit anti-Russian propaganda agents in Norwegian media, defence, and academic circles. For example, there was a basically anti-Russian propaganda program in the University of Oslo *Library* which I attended and exposed. (When I offered to hold a more objective lecture for balance, the Library refused. So much for intellectual let alone political freedom and fairness at UiO.)
London’s pro-war anti-Russian “neoconservative” – they’re not conservative – Henry M. Jackson Society gave direct testimony to British Parliament about Arctic policy, and most of the foreign troops now based in Norway are British. (Even arch-neocon U.S. Senator John McCain was up here.)
And according to the 10Jan20 Independent article, Britain has created the “National Cyber Force (NCF) … dedicated solely to offensive action against adversaries abroad” – not just defense. And Norway’s cyber-warfare ability is strong.
(I canNOT understand Norwegians’ gratitude to and infatuation with the British! The Altmark Affair and Britain’s own Operation Wilfred plan to invade Norway and Sweden convinced Hitler he had to attack first, and then the British completely botched their attempt to help defend you. And we Americans then had to bail the British out in the Pacific too!)
Defence … against “the Russians” … is big business – many jobs/”rice bowls” – in Norway, but considering the criminally neglected mess Norway’s civil defenses for our loved ones are in – see NRK TV’s De Glemte Rommene – contributing to an unnecessary World War 3 being started up here is even more INdefensible.
Ironically, in the most strategic concern of all – trying to save the environment by drastically cutting back on fossil fuel production and pollution – Russia *is* the most potentially harmful to everyone, with its denial of our environmental peril even worse than the Trump administration’s and its opposition to environmental activism like Greta Thunberg’s. But we can’t reason with them about this, when we’re so direly and directly threatening them with war and forcing them too into massive expenditures on ever increasingly dangerous/instantaneous war toys.
Something else:
It has always been courtesy not to expose/identify each other’s embassy intelligence agents. Are Russian media now going to expose intelligence officers in Norway’s Moscow embassy? Are Norwegian wingnuts now going to beat up Russian GRU officers here … and get Norwegian intelligence officers beaten up in Moscow? Or is this a runup to Russian military attaches being categorically expelled from Norway?
We shall see where this leads.