For two decades there was a genuine, if cautious, thaw in Norway’s relations with Russia. All this shuddered to a halt, of course, with the invasion of Ukraine. Norway’s most alarming wake-up call came on September 26 this year. The explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines finally changed everything. Norway seemed like a sleepwalker that had careered straight into a concrete wall. After that sabotage, the Home Guard was posted to energy installations, and Coast Guard vessels have been patrolling along North Sea pipelines. A Russian deep-cover spy was arrested in Tromsø, and the police asked the public to report any strange drone activity. It was a move they came to regret: there was a good number of Norwegians who could’t distinguish between a drone and a passenger jet, or the planet Jupiter.

EPISODE PHOTO

Border markers in the far north of Norway, Norway’s post in yellow, Russia’s post on the far side of the river. 

Photo: Clemensfranz. Licence: CC BY 3.0

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