Secure communications, more naval and air force cooperation, and combined units for crisis management operations are among the recommendations in a new report on Finnish-Swedish military cooperation.
Norway will no longer have a Commissioner dressed in military uniform on its border to Russia. Ellen Katrine Hætta could take over the position as part of the Government’s nationwide police reform.
Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk outside Arkhangelsk has full order books for 2015. For the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, the shipyard is constructing four different nuclear-powered submarines at the same time.
Although Russia is increasing its capacities, there are no rational reasons for enhanced Russian military activity directed against Norway in a short to medium-term perspective. But there is considerable uncertainty connected to the country’s long-term development, the Norwegian Intelligence Service says.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin is said to become head of Russia’s new commission for Arctic issues. The commission will be responsible for both social and economic development of Russia’s Arctic regions, as well as national security issues.
“It is timely to look into what we are going to spend Norwegian money on. Russia must take responsibility,” says Norway’s Foreign Minister Børge Brende commenting on the increase in radioactive waste to be accumulated as Russia’s nuclear submarine construction hit post-Soviet peak.
Erkki Tuomioja, likely the only Foreign Minister in Europe with a peace symbol button on his blazer, says defense cooperation with Sweden will come step-by-step.
The Russian long-ranger bomber flying around the coast of Norway towards the English Channel did not have any nuclear weapons onboard, reports RIA Novosti.
A Norwegian military listening post intercepted cockpit conversations revealing that one of the Tu-95 flying around the coast of Norway last Wednesday had a nuclear payload onboard. Two F-16s were scrambled from Bodø airbase and met the Russian planes outside Finnmark.
