Russia has declared 10 employees of the Norwegian embassy persona non grata because of Oslo's "unfriendly" actions. This is stated in a message on the website of the Foreign Ministry.
On April 26, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Norwegian Ambassador Robert Kvile, who was told a strong protest against Oslo's decision to expel diplomats from the Russian embassy in Norway and "employees of the military attache's office".
“This hostile move further aggravated the situation in bilateral relations, which are already at a critically low level,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Norway has declared 15 employees of the Russian embassy persona non grata, stating that it was in fact undercover Russian intelligence officers working at the embassy. A similar decision was made in April by the German authorities, who massively expelled employees of Russian diplomatic missions.
Diplomats from Russia began to be expelled en masse due to suspicions of espionage in early 2022. At the end of January, Germany declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata over suspicions of espionage. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Luxembourg also announced the expulsion of Russian employees. In total, 480 citizens of the Russian Federation from various embassies turned out to be persona non grata. Often, the authorities explain their decisions by the fact that intelligence officers are working in the countries from the Russian Federation, seconded to Russian missions under diplomatic cover.
