Russia said on Wednesday that restrictions imposed by Norway were blocking goods to Russian-populated settlements in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, and threatened unspecified “retaliation measures” unless Oslo resolves the issue.
Svalbard, which lies midway between Norway’s northern coast and the North Pole, is part of Norway, but Russia has the right to exploit the archipelago’s natural resources under a treaty signed in 1920, and some settlements are mainly populated. by Russians.
Norway, which is not part of the European Union but applies EU sanctions against Russia, said the sanctions would not affect the transport of goods by ship to Svalbard.
But much of the freight to Russian settlements on the archipelago first passes through a checkpoint in mainland Norway, which is closed to sanctioned goods.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Norway’s charge d’affaires to protest the restrictions, which it said had disrupted the delivery of essential supplies, including food and medical equipment.
Calling the situation “unacceptable”, he warned that “hostile” actions against Russia would lead to “retaliation measures”.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.
Norway blames ‘pro-Russian group’ for cyber attack
Several institutions in Norway have been subjected to a so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack in the past 24 hours, Norwegian security authority NSM said on Wednesday, blaming a “pro-Russian criminal group”.
The attacks, which began overnight, targeted public and private institutions that provide important services, the agency said, but did not name any of those affected.
“We are working to find out if there is a link to state-sponsored actors,” NSM chief Sofie Nystroem later told TV2.
“We are sure that no sensitive information was taken.”
The Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority’s website was unavailable on Wednesday and Norwegian media reported it was among the targets of the attack.
“We have seen similar attacks in other countries recently, although none of them have reported any lasting impact,” the NSM said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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