[…]“We don’t exclude a land grab from Russia as part of their plan to protect their own nuclear capabilities, which is the only thing they have left that actually threatens the United States,” said Gen Eirik Kristoffersen, Norway’s chief of defense.
He conceded that Russia did not have conquest goals in Norway in the same way as it had in Ukraine or other former Soviet territories, but said much of Russia’s nuclear arsenal was located on the Kola peninsula, a short distance from the Norwegian border, including nuclear submarines, land-based missiles and nuclear-capable aircraft. These would be crucial if Russia came into conflict with Nato elsewhere. […]
Kristoffersen said that while Norway was keeping the threat of a traditional Russian invasion in mind, the current Russian tactics were more diffuse. “If you prepare for the worst, there is nothing that prevents you from also being able to counter sabotage and more hybrid threats,” he said.
He added, however, that Norway and Russia still maintained some direct contact over search and rescue missions in the Barents Sea, and that there were regular meetings at the border between representatives of the two militaries.
He has recommended setting up a military hotline between the two capitals to have a channel of communication to avoid escalation based on misunderstanding. He said Russian actions in the far north had generally been less aggressive than those in the Baltic Sea.
“So far, what we have seen of airspace violation in our area has been misunderstandings. Russia is conducting a lot of [GPS] jamming, and we think that the jamming also affects their aircraft,” he said.
“They haven’t said that, but we see that when something like violating the airspace happens it’s usually because of a lack of experience from the pilots. When we talk with the Russians, they actually respond in a very professional and predictable way.”
On Norway’s northern territory of Svalbard, which contains a Russian settlement and is not allowed to be militarised under the provisions of a 1920 treaty, Kristoffersen said Russia was “respecting the treaty” and that Norway had no plans to militarise the area.
Moscow has accused Oslo of performing stealth militarisation of Svalbard but Kristoffersen said this was just a propaganda claim that Moscow did not really believe. Läs artikel