The e-service in direct contact with Russia after the arrest of Frode Berg – VG

Information about such a meeting comes in a new book on the Frode Berg case, written by NRK journalist Morten Jentoft.

The book “I Grenseland” is based in part on the diary notes of the Norwegian spy convicted during his stay of almost two years in a Russian prison and on a series of conversations between the author and Frode Berg.

Berg was arrested by the Russian security service, FSB, in Moscow on December 5, 2017.

VG Special: You should know this about the Frode Berg case

Checked possible launch

The electronic service met the arrest of Frode Berg in 2017 with an external wall of silence.

But according to the book, there must have already been a meeting on January 25, 2018, between the deputy head of the electronic service, Tom Rykken, and the Russian diplomat Vladimir Pritsjina, who was the official representative of the FSB in Norway.

According to the book, the purpose of the meeting was “to see if there was an opportunity to free Frode Berg.”

In subsequent questioning with Berg at the Moscow FSB, the FSB is said to have extracted “what they saw as confirmation from the deputy head of the Norwegian intelligence service, Tom Rykken, when he said at the meeting with” her husband “at the Russian embassy in Oslo that Frode Berg “was one of their own,” writes Jentoft in the book.

Came to question him

Frode Berg tells VG about his knowledge of the meeting between the FSB and the electronic service:

– In an interrogation at FSB on February 2, 2018, I was told that there had been a first meeting between the Norwegian and Russian security services. At the April trial, the Russian diplomat appeared as a witness and reported on the meeting.

– What did you find out about what the electronic service had said about you?

– I only have the FSB’s words about what happened at the meeting. But it cannot be ignored that the electronic service recognized a connection with me. Without such recognition, one would not have started the process that ended with the exchange, Berg tells VG.

Too early

Morten Jentoft describes the additional course as follows:

“The Russian position was that they were of course open to negotiations, but that it was too early to talk about an agreement while the investigation was ongoing. Of course, the Norwegian authorities understood this very well, but at the same time the government had to deal with a strong opinion, led by Mayor Rune Rafaelsen in Sør-Varanger, who demanded a more sustained attitude towards the Russian authorities.

Frode Berg was sentenced on April 16, 2019 to 14 years in prison for espionage.

In November 2019, he was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and then exchanged with Russian-convicted spies from Lithuania, on the Kaliningrad-Lithuanian border.

Silence about meetings

The e-service has consistently refused to comment on Berg’s own story and his confession that he traveled to Russia on behalf of the e-service.

Now that this information emerges about a possible contact between the electronic service and the FSB, the answer is the same:

– The e-service has not commented and will not comment on various allegations in this case, e-service communications manager Ann-Kristin Bjergene tells VG.

– We will not deviate from this principle in relation to the publication of Jentoft’s book either, he adds.

After release, Frode Berg received NOK 4.3 million in compensation from the state, plus coverage of legal costs.

“This settlement does not imply any acknowledgment of liability, or position on either side of the case. The amount paid is a final and full agreement between Frode Berg and state / government officials,” the settlement with Berg on compensation states.

Do you have any advice in this case? Contact VG reporters at e-publish it or in an encrypted message through Signal or WhatsApp at 92088655 or 90558560.

He could bring his wife to Russia

The book also contains information that Berg’s contact person at the e-service, who is called “Jørgen” in the book, suggested that Berg might take his wife Anita with him, when he was still on his way to Russia. The trip had to be covered “in the usual way,” he told himself.

“Frode Berg hadn’t given it much thought at the time. But where he was now sitting in Lefortovo prison with the threat of a long prison sentence on him, this seemed, to put it mildly, ill-considered by the Norwegian electronic service. What would it have been like if Anita had been with him when he walked out the door of the Hotel Metropol on December 5, 2017? “, Writes Jentoft.

– That’s right, says Frode Berg to VG.

– The person in question mentioned two or three times that he was happy to take my wife with me. But she was at work, so it wasn’t relevant. But since then I have thought about what could have happened to her: she could have been arrested and charged with complicity, or I could have left her alone in Moscow, she adds.

I never got an answer

After he was pardoned and returned to Kirkenes before Christmas 2019, Frode Berg has been in several meetings with the intelligence service and the PST surveillance police.

In the book, Berg says there are many questions that he never gets answered:

“The most important thing is how it was possible that the Norwegian intelligence service, which knew his background well, sent him to Russia, which involved a great risk.”

I met the E-boss

Many months later, he met with the chief of the electronic service, Major General Morten Haga Lunde, for a slightly longer conversation.

“When they finally met at the end of the summer of 2020, it ended with a total confrontation. Frode Berg felt that Haga Lunde and the intelligence service would not make any kind of admission, and that they thought he was the one responsible when he agreed to go to Russia. “writes Morten Jentoft.

– I don’t want to say what we’re talking about. But that meeting went completely wrong and ended with me walking out the door, Frode Berg tells VG.