Norway announced on Friday that it would, with rare exceptions, close its border to vehicles registered in Russia, an additional tightening due to the war in Ukraine.
Norway and Russia share 198 kilometers of land border in the Far North as well as the Storskog-Boris Gleb border crossing which, within the European Economic Area (EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), is the last crossing point left open to Russians with a tourist visa. “Norway stands alongside its allies in responding to the brutal war of aggression that Russia is waging in Ukraine,” declared the head of its diplomacy, Anniken Huitfeldt, in a press release.
“It is important that the sanctions are effective so that we can hinder as much as possible the revenues that the Russian state needs to finance the war,” she added. The Scandinavian country is not a member of the European Union but has adopted almost all of the sanctions taken by Brussels since the outbreak of war on February 24, 2022.
By closing its border to Russian vehicles from midnight (10 p.m. GMT) on the night of October 2 to 3, it imitates a measure already taken by the EU countries bordering Russia (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) in accordance with the recommendations of the European Commission. Moscow, for its part, denounced “absurd” restrictions.
The ban only applies to vehicles with fewer than nine seats and provides for some exceptions such as cases of humanitarian emergencies and diplomatic cars or cars belonging to European citizens residing in Russia.
This article is originally published on lorientlejour.com
