Russian Ambassador to Norway warns of Russian response to NATO threats in the Arctic

NATO members are increasingly climbing into the Arctic, Russia is monitoring the activities of the North Atlantic Alliance and is ready to make an adequate response to threats. This was announced by Russian Ambassador to Oslo Nikolai Korchunov in an interview with Izvestia on February 26.

"Under the frankly far-fetched pretext of the "Russian threat," new command and staff structures and bases of the bloc are multiplying like mushrooms after the rain in the Nordic countries. The level of NATO activity in the Baltic-Arctic region has increased so much that in order to coordinate it, the alliance has launched such framework military initiatives as the Baltic Sentinel, Eastern Sentinel, and Arctic Sentinel over the past six months alone. It is characteristic that extra—regional NATO members are increasingly climbing into the Arctic," Korchunov said.

According to him, the Russian Federation has repeatedly indicated that it has no aggressive plans against NATO countries.

"Absolutely, we are a peace-loving country. But, nevertheless, it is heating up," the ambassador stressed.

The diplomat pointed out that the West does not see that "the escalation of unhealthy hype and confrontational activities of NATO regarding Russia's strategic capabilities undermines not only security in the Arctic, but also global stability."

As Korchunov emphasized, the NATO countries are turning the northern regions into a springboard for the alliance's operations against Russia.

"I would like to emphasize that Russia does not threaten anyone and is not interested in confrontation with Norway or any other NATO country, but it will not leave the threats posed to us without an adequate response," the diplomat said.

For more information, see the program "Izvestia. The main thing" on the Fifth Channel on February 28.

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The day before, Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Department of European Problems at the Russian Foreign Ministry and a senior Russian official at the Arctic Council, said that the West was turning the Arctic into a new arena of confrontation and military-political confrontation. He noted that NATO is actively engaged in the militarization of the Arctic.: It strengthens the offensive potential, increases military training activity and involves countries that are not related to the Arctic region in the process.

Reuters also reported on February 11 that NATO has launched the Arctic Sentry mission to expand its military presence in the Arctic. It is noted that within the framework of this mission, the military presence of the alliance's forces in the region will be coordinated.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.