Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide has said that Russia was behind a cyberattack launched against the Norwegian parliament in August, an accusation rejected by Moscow as “a deliberate provocation.”
The Norwegian legislature said on September 1 that it had been the target of a cyberattack the week before and that the e-mail accounts of several lawmakers and employees had been hacked.
“Based on the information available to the government, it is our assessment that Russia stood behind this activity,” Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a statement on October 13.
Norway wants to have a pragmatic relationship with Russia, but can’t accept such attacks against its democratic institutions, she added when asked if the attack would impact the relationship between Norway and Russia.
“We cannot accept that parliament is the subject of such attacks.”
The Russian Embassy in Oslo rejected the accusation, saying the it was “a deliberate provocation,” and said it
was expecting an explanation from Oslo.
“On October 13, 2020, the Norwegian authorities accused Russia of delivering a ‘cyberattack’ on the Storting [parliament]. No proof was presented. We view such accusations of our country as unacceptable. We deem this as a serious, deliberate provocation, which is harmful for bilateral relations,” the embassy wrote in a commentary on Facebook.
“We are expecting an explanation from the Norwegian side,” it said.
Norway, which is a member of NATO, has a border with Russia in the Arctic.
