OREANDA-NEWS  Norwegian National Radio (NRK) reported that ten employees of the embassy in Moscow have been recognized as undesirable persons and must leave Russia. This was told to NRK by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the expulsion of diplomats, linking it with the decision of Oslo to expel 15 employees of the Russian Embassy in Norway.

As the radio notes, Norwegian Ambassador Robert Kvile was summoned to a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry today, April 26, in the morning. There he was informed of the decision to expel the embassy staff. "It would be a big surprise if they reacted differently," he said in a conversation with NRK.

Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ragnhild Simenstad noted that this was a response to the decision of the Norwegian authorities to declare employees of the Russian Embassy in Oslo undesirable persons. "We view Russia's decision as an act of revenge. All our diplomats in Russia do normal diplomatic work. The Russian authorities know this well," he said.

The Norwegian authorities called the expelled employees of the Russian diplomatic mission "intelligence officers". The head of the counterintelligence unit of the Norwegian Police Security Service, Inger Haugland, claimed that diplomats from Russia "conducted signal intelligence, searched for sources of information and a number of other matters unrelated to diplomacy."