Russian relations ‘not the same’

After years of political pride and satisfaction over Norway’s close relations with its large neighbour to the east, concerns are now rising in the Norwegian foreign ministry. “Russia has changed” during the latest term of President Vladimir Putin, according to Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. “We must acknowledge that the role of civilian society [...]

Cross-border trade in reverse, in Northern Norway

While Norwegians stream over the border, especially in southern Norway, to take advantage of lower prices in Sweden, the cross-border trade in the far north is the reverse: Russian citizens shuttle back and forth to Kirkenes, to stock up on goods they can’t get at home. Newspaper Aftenposten reported recently that traffic over the border [...]

Statoil pursues life after Shtokman

Norwegian oil firm Statoil is pursuing its many investment opportunities after handing back a 24 percent stake in Russia’s giant Shtokman gas field and writing down around NOK 2 billion (USD 338m) from the project. But talks continue, along with debate over whether Statoil will pull out for good. Statoil took the large writedown in [...]

Norway unhappy with Russia and China over Syria

The Norwegian government is holding Russia and China “especially” responsible for preventing the UN Security Council from making serious attempts to halt the violence and killings in Syria. The Norwegian military expert who’s been leading UN forces in Syria, meanwhile, felt forced to leave the embattled country. Major General Robert Mood left Damascus for Geneva [...]

Questions rise over big oil deal

Statoil’s huge oil exploration deal with Russian firm Rosneft in the Arctic may not be as promising as initially thought, suggests a Norwegian researcher who’s closely studied energy prospects in the Barents Sea. He thinks Italian oil firm Eni and Exxon of the US were granted more favourable exploration areas than Statoil. “I’m amazed,” Arild [...]

Russia: US will send ships to Norway

A Russian diplomat has claimed that American authorities are hoping to place warships in Norwegian waters as part of the planned NATO missile defense system. The Russian ambassador to NATO, Dmitrij Rogozin, told news agency NTB that “when I talked with my American colleagues, they did not rule out the possibility of placing missile defense [...]

Ex-Labour leaders deny halting book

Former leaders of Norway’s Labour Party, including current Council of Europe leader Thorbjørn Jagland, flatly deny a report in newspaper Dagbladet over the weekend that they tried to halt publication of a book in the UK that allegedly exposed two more Norwegian spies for the Soviet Union. Both of the alleged spies reportedly had ties [...]

Russia admits nuclear weaknesses

Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom has admitted that Russia’s nuclear power plants are seriously underprepared to deal with a natural disaster on the scale of the recent earthquake in Japan – confirming Norwegian fears over northern Russian power stations considered a threat to Norway. Newspaper Aftenposten reported over the weekend that a report authored by [...]

Smooth sailing for Norway and Russia

Relations seem better than ever between Norway and Russia, following a few recent conflicts over salmon imports, human rights, business trouble for Telenor and Russian fighter jets buzzing the coast. Now the two countries seem to think it’s in both their interests to promote peace and harmony, and not only in the northern areas they [...]

Russian extremists have police photos

Photographs of 82 men that appear to be taken by the Norwegian police and would only be accessible to police officers have been published on an extreme Russian nationalist website, which claims that the men are anti-fascist activists and threatens violence against them. The pictures, which have appeared during the past two weeks, are alleged [...]

Chernobyl fallout still felt in Norway

Fallout from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant continues to affect Norwegian farmers 25 years later, as environmental organizations demanded that the government do more to help efforts to secure remaining vulnerable reactors in both Chernobyl and northern Russia. Emissions of radioactive material from the Ukrainian nuclear facility began on April 26 1986, [...]

Amelie could be safe in Ossetia

North Ossetia, the republic in the Caucasus where Norway’s award-winning illegal alien Maria Amelie was born, was dominated by criminal organizations in the 1990s. According to people who know the country well, the situation is much different today and Amelie could be sent back safely. During the 1990s the Russian government had relinquished power in [...]

Visa-free zone for Norway and Russia

Norway’s border with Russia opened up, at least a bit, this week when the two countries agreed on a visa-free zone that will allow residents on both sides of the border to cross it more easily. Residents can apply for a so-called grenseboerbevis (border traffic permit) that Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said will “significantly [...]

Human rights group ‘deeply worried’

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is “deeply worried” about the human rights situation in Russia and invited several leading Russian activists to Oslo this week for a series of meetings. Among them was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced on October 8. It’s only been a week since Russia President Dmitry [...]

Georgia de-mined with Norwegian aid

Jonathon Guthrie (R), a program manager of Norwegian People’s Aid, and Norwegian ambassador to Georgia Jon Ramberg hold a button to detonate the last cluster of munitions found near the Georgian and South Ossetian de facto border in the village of Variani, some 100 km (68 miles) northwest of Tbilisi June 22. Non-governmental organization Norwegian [...]

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