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This afternoon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Russia was behind the computer attack on the Storting in late August.
Storting’s representative, Michael Tetzschner (H), calls the attack very serious and believes that this also defines the cyber domain as an area for acts of war.
– Due to the potential for destruction, an attack via digital highways can be on par with ordinary physical sabotage, he tells Dagbladet.
– Same pattern
– What are the Russians doing here? They show power, that they can hurt us if they want to? how do you interpret this?
– Now I leave it to those who are closer to the details and will do a more in-depth analysis of this. But it is quite obvious that one has not had inhibitions, considering that the risk of detection is significant. So you can also say that this is the same pattern you see in poison gas use, says Tetzschner.
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– How do they use poisons, which they know go back to themselves, to give a message?
– Yes, exactly. The Novitsjok poison that has hit an innocent civilian in Salisbury was intended to kill a former defector. And it also affected his daughter, says Tetzschner and refers, among other things, to the well-known Skripal case.
– They are willing to work pretty hard, he says.
– not surprised
Skripal and Navalny
On March 4, 2018, Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, UK. British authorities believe the two were poisoned with novitiate, a neurotoxin developed in the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, and accuse Russia of being behind it, something that the Russian authorities deny.
Recently, Putin’s great rival, Alexei Navalny, also fell ill on a domestic flight in Siberia on August 20. At first he was treated by Russian doctors, but after international pressure, he was transferred to Germany for treatment two days later. Putin’s critic was then in a coma, but has since recovered.
– He may have swallowed the poison himself.
Several labs have determined that Navalny was poisoned with rookie shock, and Navalny accuses Putin of being behind the poison attack.
– The Putin regime is leaving traces of blood. Among the things they also leave are novitsjok’s footprints, as stated by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, says Tetzschner.
– Hostile action
– What did the attack say about the relationship between Norway and Russia?
Russia’s reputation has already been severely damaged by the occupation of the maritime island of Crimea and hostilities in eastern Ukraine. But when you head to a country that should definitely be outside Russia’s traditional sphere of influence, you belong to a serious new dimension on the whole, says Tetzschner.
– Could this be related to the spy case from earlier? Will Russia show what it can do to us?
– They may have many operations in progress. There are many pointers and messages to be found in this, but it has to be defined as a direct hostile act towards Norway, he says.
Mikhail Botshkarev came to Norway as a senior advisor in the information technology department of the Council of the Russian Federation. During a seminar at the Storting, there was a reaction to the behavior of the Russian and contacted the PST.
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He was accused of violating article 121 of the Penal Code on intelligence activities against state secrets. Bochkarev was held in pre-trial detention for about a month before being released by the Oslo District Court in October 2018. In April last year, it emerged that the Attorney General had dropped the charges against him.
An increasingly difficult relationship
– It is not surprising
Anniken Huitfeldt (Labor Party) also calls the TI attack a “very serious attack on our democratic institution.”
– Unfortunately, no wonder. We have been subject to interference on the GSM network during a NATO exercise. So it is important that we react from the Norwegian side.
Huitfeldt says he has informed the Foreign Minister that the Labor Party fully agrees with his handling of this matter.
– We must be prepared for more attacks of this kind in the future.
– Is it important that we say and point to Russia?
– Yes of course. It has been our attitude towards Russia from the beginning that we say clearly when they break the rules of the game. This is stressful for our relationship with Russia. We see a more assertive Russia. We must not be naive and react consistently.
Neither Siv Jensen nor Trygve Slagsvold Vedum want to comment.
Russia is behind it
The Russians respond
The Foreign Ministry came out with its proposal for Russia shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. About three hours later, the Russian embassy in Oslo responds, calling the accusations a serious and deliberate provocation and destructive bilateral relations.
In advance, the head of the International Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Kosachev, told TASS:
– As always, the accusations are made without worrying about documentation and any discussion about the incidents at the expert level, says Konstantin Kosachev.
Leonid Slutsky, who is a member of the same committee, also takes a hard line against the allegations in an interview with TASS.
– It’s complete nonsense. Strong evidence is needed for such statements, he says, stating that this is not the first time that Norway “has become hostage to anti-Russian hysteria.”
