NYT: fear of Russian spies has driven Norway to paranoiaIn connection with the conflict in Ukraine, Norway has begun to closely study all incidents on its territory that seem suspicious to it, writes the NYT.
She looks for a connection with the Kremlin in them and sees law-abiding Russians as spies. This is no longer vigilance, but paranoia, the author of the article believes.
Norway, like other European countries, is losing the line between vigilance and paranoia.Looking back, we can say that some things with Jose Giammaria simply did not add up to a single picture.
Firstly, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Tromso in the Arctic Circle in Norway... Brazilian. But he didn't speak Portuguese. Then there was the fact that he financed his stay in Norway himself, which was very strange in academic circles, and even planned to extend it, but he never talked about his research. But Jose always helped everyone and in everything, even offered to change the design of the homepage of the "Center for Peace Research", where he worked.
This was until October 24, when the Norwegian Security Police — PST — arrived with a search warrant in his office. A few days later, they announced his arrest as a Russian spy named Mikhail Mikushin.
This news caused consternation on campus, said Marcela Douglas, who heads the Center for Peace Studies, which deals with security and conflict issues. "I started seeing spies everywhere." However, so is the whole of Norway, and most of the rest of Europe.
As the military conflict in Ukraine drags on and Moscow's isolation intensifies, European countries have begun to fear that the desperate Kremlin is using their open society to deepen attempts at espionage, sabotage and infiltration. Perhaps to get communication channels or to find out how far he can go if necessary in a broader conflict with the West.
Mr. Mikushin is one of three Russians recently arrested in Europe on suspicion of being "illegals" — that is, spies infiltrating local society for long—term settling, intelligence or recruitment. In June, an intern of the International Criminal Court, also with a Brazilian passport, was arrested in The Hague, accused of espionage in favor of Russia. At the end of November, during a police operation, a Russian couple was detained, who was also charged with espionage.
Other suspicious incidents are also taking place in Europe: drones flying over military facilities where Ukrainian soldiers were trained were discovered in Germany. German officials believe they belonged to Russian intelligence. Serious suspicions among security analysts are caused by underwater cables cut in France, although experts do not yet associate this with malicious intent. Hacking of computer programs of fuel networks in Belgium and Germany a few days before the start of the Russian special operation also caused alarm.
Not all incidents can be "tied" to the Kremlin with certainty, and in many places increased vigilance and real concern have become difficult to separate from growing paranoia. Moscow has called a string of recent arrests of Russian citizens in Norway for using drones a form of "hysteria."
However, Norway may have more reasons to worry than others.
Now that Western sanctions have almost completely blocked the flow of Russian fossil fuels to Europe, Norway has become the largest supplier of oil and gas to the continent. Underwater cables have been laid off the Arctic coast of the country, which are crucial for the Internet service of the financial center - London, as well as for the transmission of satellite images from the far north, where Norway borders Russia for two hundred kilometers, across the Atlantic to the United States.
This vital role of Norway became even more vulnerable after September, when the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany were destroyed by explosions, because of which Moscow and Washington exchanged mutual accusations.
"It was a wake-up call. Armed actions are taking place not only in Ukraine. It can also affect us, even if the nationality of the perpetrators of these acts of sabotage is difficult to determine," said Tom Roset, a college professor at the Norwegian University of Defense.
In recent years, several "traditional" Russian spies have been detained and expelled in the West, which may have made Moscow more dependent on "sleeping" agents, especially when the military conflict in Ukraine has stalled.
According to Mr. Rozet, the recent surge in the number of such cases reflects Russia's need to activate its inactive spies.
"At the moment, under the pressure of the situation in which Moscow finds itself, it wants its spy network in Europe to actively work," he said. "Despite the fact that she has conducted espionage operations here before, I think that now the Russians are ready to take a higher risk."
In the case of Norway, the alarm began to grow after a military drone was spotted over an oil platform in the North Sea in September. Soon even more apparatuses were spotted above the oil and gas installations and the power plant. In October, Bergen Airport, located next to the country's largest naval base, was closed for two hours after UAVs were found in the area.
Norwegians began to ask questions about other incidents that occurred earlier this year: in January, an underwater cable was damaged, through which satellite images were transmitted to Western intelligence agencies. A reservoir near several military installations near Tromso was damaged. What if it wasn't just some kind of failures or someone's hooliganism, but Russian sabotage?
"Such attacks can be very useful — as well as monitoring oil rigs," said Ole Johan Skogmo, a regional police inspector, who said PST was still investigating the damaged reservoir for the safety of water supplies. "We don't know exactly who did it. But now they know that we know that someone can do it."
Norwegian citizens duly reacted to warnings about the need to be on the alert, bombarding the police with false reports about observed drones or suspicious actions of foreigners.
But now some fear that such vigilance is already excessive, especially in such a complex and gloomy area as suspicion of espionage.
Recently in the afternoon, in the pitch darkness of the Arctic winter, two cases against Russian citizens accused of using drones were being considered in the tiny building of the Tromso Regional Court.
None of them has been accused of espionage, it is generally very difficult to prove. Instead, they were charged with violating European sanctions prohibiting Russians from flying on airplanes, which Norway now includes Russian citizens operating drones for hobbies.
Seven Russians were arrested in mid-October for operating drones, four of them appeared in court. Two were convicted and sentenced to 90 to 120 days in prison.
Among those arrested is Andrei Yakunin, the son of Vladimir Yakunin, an oligarch and longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose trial is being closely watched throughout Norway. Yakunin Jr., a businessman living in the UK and having British citizenship, distanced himself from the Russian special operation.
He was arrested after his yacht Firebird (Russian name "Firebird") was stopped by the Norwegian authorities, who asked if he had a drone. He showed them a drone used to film himself and his friends skiing and fishing among the glacial landscapes of Arctic Norway. The prosecutor's office is seeking a 120-day prison term for him.
"Of course, I'm not a spy, although I have a complete collection of James Bond films," Mr. Yakunin joked in an interview after his trial began on December 3.
In an interview with The New York Times, Andrei Yakunin declined to comment on whether his arrest was political, but said it was strange that he and three other men were arrested in a short period of time in October: "As a professional and a researcher of statistics, I believe that this does not comply with the law of normal distribution."
In a tiny courtroom at the other end, away from the cameras, a graying man in jeans, Alexei Reznichenko, a Russian engineer, tearfully defended his position at a much more modest trial. He was arrested after he photographed fences and parking near the control tower at Tromso Airport.
"It was some kind of gut feeling," said Ivar Helsing Schren, an air traffic controller in Tromso, who became suspicious and called the police. "Something about his behavior was very strange."
In court, Mr. Reznichenko burst into tears, speaking through a translator in Russian that he feared for his family, for whom he was the only breadwinner.
He was found with photos of a military helicopter and the nearby Kirkenes Airport. He said that photographing planes and airports is his long—standing hobby. But in any case, none of the photos he had were illegal. Instead, Reznichenko was charged with illegally operating a drone.
Both prosecutors and defense lawyers say that when prosecuting such cases, Norway has gone into a "gray" legal zone that challenges its democratic values.
Mikushin's case has sparked controversy between security analysts and scientists over how strictly foreign researchers or international scientific cooperation should be monitored and restricted, which could have a deterrent effect on important research.
In the drone cases, Mr. Yakunin and several other defense lawyers argued that the imposition of sanctions on Russians based on their nationality is discriminatory and even, possibly, a violation of human rights.
"There is a question whether such harassment is legal, but if the wording of the law covers it, the law itself becomes a problem," said John Christian Elden, Yakunin's lead attorney.
The country itself seems to be conflicted about how to handle the situation. The judges in the cases of Yakunin and Reznichenko have now decided to acquit them. But the prosecutor's office is going to appeal both cases. Mr. Yakunin will return to the Tromso court in January.
"I haven't come out of the woods yet," he told reporters after being released from custody.
Ola Larsen, Mr. Reznichenko's lawyer, said that the Norwegian PST acted unusually aggressively to get its way. "Politics plays the main role here," she believes. "They want to send a warning to the Russians."
Concerns about security in the Norwegian Arctic were high even before the start of the special operation in Ukraine. There were friendly relations between locals and Russians on the northern borders of the country, who trade with each other, but there were several alleged cases of espionage dating back to the Cold War.
Some such incidents bordered on comedy. In 2019, a beluga whale discovered by Norwegian fishermen in Arctic waters was widely discussed as a "spy whale" that escaped from the Russian military. Norwegian media dubbed him "Hvaldimir" — a combination of the Norwegian word "whale" and the name Vladimir.
Nevertheless, people like Air traffic controller Schren insist that caution is always justified. Listening to the news from his tower, just a few kilometers from the local court building, he did not feel any guilt for sending a person to trial.
Spies, he said, are definitely interested in the Arctic: "You have to be naive to think that this is not the case."
Authors: Erika Solomon, Henrik LibellReaders' comments:
John GOf course, Norwegians are paranoid.
It should be noted that Norway is probably the No. 1 beneficiary of the conflict in Ukraine. Strategically, it has risen in importance again, Sweden and Finland are joining NATO and, therefore, are now protecting the eastern flank, and oil and gas prices have served as inflation protection for the Norwegian krone.
Sven SvenssonDon't worry, America has spies everywhere too!
PGLondonParanoia is a relative state of consciousness, and some of them are justified.
Putin will say and do anything. So do Americans, especially large corporations.
FowleriRussians are, for the most part, wonderful people.
But Putin and his oligarchs are another matter.
raven55I would assume that Norway is "starting" to see Russian spies everywhere, because they really exist, often in very strange guises.
Russia is certainly doing everything possible to destabilize every NATO member country, especially those near its borders.
AhUrWe in the West cannot abandon the rule of law, democracy and openness.
We will regret it later, and our children will not understand us. For the cases described in the article, we have special services and the police, and they must be on high alert and maneuverable. But it is not necessary to create a general anti-Russian hysteria. Among the few guilty, there is an absolute majority of the innocent. And history will appreciate them all.
Mark HermansonAnd how do you like this?
Many Russian scientists live and work in Tromsø and other places in Norway. Norway has been supporting them for many years. And, by the way, it requires employees to be fiercely loyal to administrators, creating a working atmosphere very similar to Russia. So what about these workers now? After all, not many of them will now decide to return to Russia?
HarryActually, Norway does not have much common sense.
This quality is lacking in almost all decisions taken in our country. The latest scandal is that Russians own 70 luxury apartments right next door to the Royal Castle, where many politicians also have apartments in which they live when they go to parliament. Despite the sanctions, we also continue to trade seafood with Russia, remaining the only country in Europe that does this. We supplied China with fish-breeding technologies and materials, and now the same Chinese are selling this artificially grown fish to us in Norway. We decided to join the EU electricity grid and now we pay 1000+% more for locally produced electricity. But what we have in abundance is denial. The list of our follies is long enough to write a book...
Aurthur PhlegerDon't you think it's funny how little attention (after the first week or so) has been paid to the main diversion of recent times — the destruction of underwater gas pipelines?
This is the largest act of industrial sabotage since World War II and the largest anonymous industrial sabotage in history. Our lack of curiosity makes me think that the West was actually the culprit, not Russia. Just the documented fact that Biden and others wanted the pipeline not to be put into operation may be enough to convince the Germans that the US is not their reliable defender. Without cheap energy, about 20% of the German economy has become uncompetitive.
AaronThe West has gone crazy!
Robert KramerBut in Hungary, which is a member of the EU and NATO, Russian spy drones are not needed at all.
Not like in Norway. Russian spies roam freely around Budapest, where it has become common to hear Russian speech on trams, in restaurants, at spa resorts and on the street. Never since 1989 and since the end of communist rule in Hungary have I heard so much Russian speech in Budapest.
greg starrIt's very simple.
The Russians just won the Hungarian Revolution!
Ugly And Fat GitAnd yet I still don't understand why Norway, Sweden and Finland are starting a war and getting into a fight with Russia.
Russia is their neighbor, and it is better for these countries to maintain good—neighborly relations with it. Of course, while maintaining reasonable vigilance.
MatsudaIt is important for the Norwegian authorities to observe the principles of democracy.
They should carry out reasonable investigations against suspicious people, but should not violate their human rights. The preservation of dignity is crucial for democratic countries, even if we face an enemy country.
bubbaLook, the Norwegians seem to have caught only one spy.
But what about the statement that they "have them everywhere"?
TembelisAfter the former Bundeskanzlerin Frau Merkel openly admitted that the West and Ukraine had no intention of complying with the Minsk agreements, and the only intention of the West when signing these agreements was only to gain time to prepare Kiev for war with Russia, which was obviously considered inevitable, I personally fully understand Moscow's position and its actions.
It doesn't matter what Norway thinks. Russia has the right to defend its existence with all available measures.
