Norway’s Counterintelligence Service (PSD) identified the alleged Russian spy as Mikheil Mikushin, a citizen born in 1978, who posed as 37-year-old Brazilian citizen Jose Assis Giamaria.
Mikushin is a Russian military intelligence officer, according to investigative website Bellingcat.
“Great job, Norway, you arrested a colonel from the GRU (Russia’s military intelligence agency),” wrote Bellingcat investigator Christo Grosev.
Photographs of the suspected agent were published in various Norwegian media.
An Oslo court ruled on Friday that Mikushin will be detained for four weeks despite denying all charges against him. For the first two, the suspect must remain in complete seclusion to avoid the disappearance of evidence.
The suspect has been arrested by the Norwegian Secret Service. At the beginning of the weekOn his way to the University of Tromsø, where he claims to be a researcher.
A few days ago, the alleged spy was arrested due to a problem with his residence permit. Issues leading to your deportation.
After his release, the investigation was expanded to include suspicions of “espionage against state secrets classified as harmful to the fundamental interests of the nation,” which carries a prison sentence of up to three years in Norway.
“Spy Craze”
PST reveals that Russian agents spied on “hybrid” threats involving Norway’s political interests and affairs in the Arctic.
Norway shares a 198 km border with Russia to the north.
After the announcement of the alleged arrest of the undercover agent, the Russian embassy in Oslo criticized Norway’s “espionage obsession”.
In an email to AFP on Wednesday, the Russian embassy said it did not know the citizen presented as an agent in Russia’s service, adding that it did not know “who or what it was about”. [a detenção].
“In general, the espionage craze has recently been actively promoted in Norway,” the report added.
In recent weeks, Norway has arrested nine Russian citizens accused of flying drones over its airspace, in violation of a ban introduced since the start of the war in Ukraine, in addition to an alleged spy. They were accused of photographing important places in restricted areas.
Russian fishing trawlers, still in some Norwegian ports – despite the EU ban – and research vessels have raised suspicions in Norway.
Since the war in Ukraine overtook Russia as Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas, Norway has tightened security at all strategic national locations.
Security has been improved due to the detection of unidentified drones flying over some Norwegian oil and gas facilities. The sabotage of two Baltic Sea pipelines, Nord Stream, has heightened tensions in the region.
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