in This week, Norway expelled 15 Russian diplomats Norway’s security service said on Friday, Reuters reported, that they were trying to recruit sources, intercept communications and buy advanced technology.

The real employers of the diplomats were the Russian special services GRU, FSB and SVR, PST counterintelligence chief Inger Haugland said at a press conference.

“It reduces the threat from Russian intelligence in Norway by permanently reducing the number of intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover,” Haugland said of the expulsions.

Norway’s actions will expel more than a third of the roughly 40 Russian diplomats in Norway, according to Norway’s foreign ministry.

All the expelled diplomats were men and worked in the consular, trade and embassy departments of the Russian delegation in Oslo, PST Commissioner Doug Royell told Reuters.

NATO member Norway shares a border with Russia in the Arctic. It has stepped up security since the start of the war in Ukraine, especially around its oil and gas facilities, as it is now the main supplier of gas to Europe after falling Russian flows.

In October, Norway arrested a suspected Russian spy it described as an illegal agent — an intelligence agent with no official ties to the government who poses as an undercover agent, often using the identity of a real dead person.

Norway has also investigated a number of drones around onshore and offshore oil and gas infrastructure following last year’s Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.

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