The small city of Bode in northern Norway is vulnerable to Russian cyberattacks and intelligence threats, the county’s police chief told local businesspeople in late September 2023. AFP/GETTY IMAGES
THE WATCH STAFF
The police chief of a northern county of Norway recently warned local businesses, governments and cultural institutions to step up security in the face of increased threats from Russia.
Nordland Police Chief Heidi Klokstad was blunt in her October 2023 comments to the High North News. “Russia is the most central threat right now,” Klokstad told the newspaper.
Norway is a key Arctic ally of the U.S., which has prioritized the Arctic region in its homeland defense strategy. More than 50% of the area of operation for U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is in the Arctic, and “USNORTHCOM and NORAD’s priorities in the region continue to focus on increased presence, campaigning through joint training and exercises, and close collaboration with allies and partners,” Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, who leads the commands, said in March 2023 congressional testimony.
The increased threat to Norway from Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine has been hard for many northern Norwegians, especially in the business community, the police chief said.
“The business sector in Northern Norway holds a major and important role in the preparedness and security work regarding the threat level from Russia. We live in quite a different world than we did a few years ago, and although no war is being fought on Norwegian soil, we are part of this war,” she told the News.
Klokstad said possible Russian targets include defense, aquaculture, oil and gas, technology businesses, academia, and media in the region, including Nordland, which is the least populated of Norway’s 11 counties.
Even more critical to Norwegian national security, Klokstad said, was that her country protect its water and power plants and related infrastructure. Police have already seen sabotage attempts.
“Very little poison is needed in a waterworks before it is useless as a water source,” Klokstad said.
Norway’s Arctic region has become more contested in recent years as melting sea ice makes the area more navigable. Norway has recently discussed defense issues in its remote Svalbard Peninsula, and high-ranking officers have suggested the NATO member recast its no-fly policies near its airspace with Russia, according to reports in The Barents Observer, an online newspaper.
Klokstad noted that diplomatic relations between Norway and Russia have shriveled since the invasion of Ukraine to sharing nuclear alerts on the border and cooperation on fishing issues and search and rescue operations.
“Russia hardly has the capacity to attack the West militarily. They cannot lead two wars simultaneously, especially not when NATO is the opponent. Therefore, they go after the civil society to influence and destabilize us as much as possible,” Klokstad said at a business conference in Bode, the administrative capital of Nordland, the High North News reported.
Artificial intelligence, 3D printers, biotechnology, surveillance technology, space technology and underwater technology will all draw Russian interest, she said.
And the region’s infrastructure is critical to withstanding any sustained attack from a potential adversary such as Russia, she said.
“It is very vulnerable. The moment you remove the internet, power and water, in addition to other infrastructure, you have zeroed out a community. That is why we are concerned with how municipalities secure their socially critical objects by checking physical security, surveillance cameras, and whatever is needed,” Klokstad said.
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