There are no indications that relations between Russia and the West will improve in 2019, Norwegian Lieutenant General Morten Haga Lunde has suggested.
While presenting Focus 2019, the Norwegian Intelligence Service's most recent analytical report on threats and security, its director Lieutenant General Morten Haga Lunde claimed that Russian Su-24s flying in an attack formation performed a mock strike on a Norwegian radar array about a year ago, turning away shortly before entering Norwegian airspace.
During his speech at Oslo's Military Society, Haga Lunde revealed a map of a wing of 11 Sukhoi-24 (NATO code name: Fencer) supersonic attack aircraft taking off from Monchegorsk air base on the Kola Peninsula and flying out over the Barents Sea before making a sharp turn and proceeding in an attack formation towards Vardø, Norway's most northeastern town and home to a powerful radar administered by the Norwegian Intelligence Service. The exercise allegedly happened on 14 February, 2018.
Morten Haga Lunde claimed that this scenario was very similar to what allegedly took place on 24 March 2017, but with more aircraft. At that time, Norway claimed nine Russian jets took part in the mock attack.
Norway Beefs Up Arctic Defences at Russia's Doorstep
Haga Lunde also claimed that Russia's rhetoric against Norway has become “sharper”.
Kristian Åtland, an expert on Russian military activities in the Arctic with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment…