Norwegian intelligence: Russia has become more prone to sabotage

The head of Norway's foreign intelligence service, Niels Andreas Stensen, believes that Russia has become more likely to try and sabotage its infrastructure, such as oil and gas, than a year ago as it becomes bolder in countering Western support for Ukraine, Reuters reports, UNN writes.

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"The level of risk has changed," Vice Admiral Niels Andreas Stensen, head of the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS), told Reuters in an interview .

"We believe that sabotage is more likely, and we see acts of sabotage happening in Europe right now, which indicates that they (the Russians) have advanced a little bit on this scale," he said.

The publication notes that Russia rejects such accusations as intimidation of the West. 

Earlier this year, Norwegian intelligence agencies assessed that Russia "may consider it prudent" to conduct sabotage with oil as the main target, whereas last year they considered it unlikely.

Norway is the largest gas supplier in Europe and a major exporter of crude oil.

Stensen said that President Vladimir Putin's country has become "more or less a rogue state" for the West, meaning it has little to lose by taking riskier steps, although it will be careful not to invoke the collective defense clause of the NATO alliance.

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After the explosions on the Nord Stream pipeline in September 2022, Norway deployed its navy to protect its oil and gas platforms in the North Sea with the support of NATO allies.

Nevertheless, as the newspaper notes, "Norway's subsea infrastructure is so vast, consisting of about 9,000 km of gas pipelines, that it is difficult to protect." Norway also has more than 90 offshore oil and gas fields.