Tensions between the West and Russia need to be prevented from dropping to a Cold War level, Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) on Wednesday.
“Relations between Russia, NATO and the Western states are rather chilled at the moment but I hope that we will not go back to the Cold War era. We have not reached that particular point yet,” she said. According to Solberg, Norway is interested in keeping good relations with Russia in areas where the two countries cooperate.
On Monday, Norway followed the example of European Union countries and the United States, announcing the expulsion of one Russian diplomat over the so-called Skripal case. Solberg said that the Salisbury incident required decisive measures and it was important for the European countries to express solidarity with London.
Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said earlier that Oslo had received information about the Skripal case, which had led London to accuse Russia of being involved. However, those documents were not made public.
“[The expulsion] is an unfriendly step on the part of Norway,” Russian Ambassador to Oslo Teimuraz Ramishvili said in an interview with the Aftenposten daily on Wednesday. “This is not a thing that could help our countries improve relations, which are currently far from ideal,” he added.
The Norwegian government’s decision received support among members of the left opposition parties in the country’s parliament, while politicians from the northeastern Finnmark county, which borders Russia’s Murmansk region, expressed concern over the risk of deteriorating relations. The mayor of the Sor-Varanger commune, Rune Rafaelsen, told the NRK that in case tensions continued to grow, hotheads could suggest closing the border with Russia or the Russian consulate in the town of Kirkenes, which “would be extremely harmful [for bilateral relations].”
According to head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat Lars Georg Fordal, nothing good will come out of further standoff between Oslo and Moscow.