Norwegian student arrested on charges of spying on the US for Russia

A Norwegian student in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia and Iran while working as a guard at the US Embassy in Oslo, authorities in Norway have said.

The man, who has not been identified, was ordered to be held in custody for four weeks. He runs a security company jointly with a dual national of Norway and an unspecified eastern European country, according to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

Oslo police said Friday they would review the company’s operating license.

Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, PST, said the man was arrested in his garage at home on Wednesday on suspicion of having damaged national security.

The arrest warrant from the district court, says, among other things, that the police found records of the man’s assignment dialogue with a person who was apparently guiding his espionage activity, according to NRK, which reported that the man has admitted to collecting and sharing information with Russian and Iranian authorities.

Third parties

It is too early to talk about the details of the man’s activity, PST spokesman Thomas Blom told a news conference Thursday night, but the intelligence service has confirmed the man was employed as a security guard at the US Embassy in Oslo.

The suspect’s attorney, John Christian Elden, told NRK that the man admits he worked for a foreign country but does not admit he is guilty of espionage.

“He is charged with having obtained information that could harm the security situation of third countries,” Elden said.

There are no other suspects in the case at this point.

It was revealed on Friday that the man is studying for a bachelor’s degree in security and preparedness at Norway’s Arctic University, UiT. NRK reports it is the second such case at the university in recent years.

One of the people the West swapped with Russia in a major prisoner exchange in August was a UiT guest researcher who had claimed to be Brazilian and went by the name José Assis Giammaria before being charged with espionage in 2022. The police revealed him to be a Russian named Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin.

Norway shares a 198-kilometre border with Russia, and since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has heavily restricted entry for Russian nationals.

In September, the Norwegian government said it was considering a plan to build a fence along all or part of the frontier.