This week, BarentsObserver drove snowmobiles along the Norway’s border to Russia with State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense Roger Ingebrigtsen.
- Norway and Russia has a good relationship. Our cooperation on the border works very well today and we intend to develop this in the years to come, says Roger Ingebrigtsen.
Ingebrigtsen and BarentsObserver started the snowmobile drive from Elvenes border station, one of the six that will be closed down within some few years. Together with experienced military officers, well-trained to operate in the harsh Arctic climate, we crossed over the snowy hills towards one of the many remote Observation Posts along Norway’s 196 kilometers long border to Russia.
The State Secretary wanted to get first-hand information from the border guards that daily are on duty, watching the border areas.
With full speed on the snowmobiles, we claimed the last few hundred meters up to the Observation tower at Skoltefossnakken from where the guards look directly towards the dam of a Russian hydropower plant crossing the Pasvik River that forms the border between Russia and Norway.
- There is no contradiction between having good bilateral relations with Russia and have well trained personnel and modern surveillance equipment at the border, says Ingebrigtsen.
Read also: Plans for new border stations ready
The State Secretary more than hint that the Government will give the needed approval to the investment plans for two new border guard stations.
Together with the already approved modernization of the Sør-Varanger Garrison’s (GSV) headquarters outside Kirkenes, the total investment plans on the border to Russia will cost some €45 million.
The process of building the two new modern border stations is expected to start in 2012 according to the Ministry of Defense.
Also, new equipment to ensure a more effective monitoring of the border will come. New cameras are already in place. Those cameras are located in areas where illegal border crossings are most likely to take place.
Personnel radars are installed and the border guards have got better night-glasses to detect people during the Arctic night lasting from November to late January.
Read also: Head of Russian border guard visited Norwegian border guard
