Norway announced on Friday that it would close its border to vehicles registered in Russia, with a few exceptions, an additional tightening due to the war in Ukraine.
Norway and Russia share a 198-kilometer land border in the Far North, as well as the Storskog-Boris Gleb border crossing, which is the last border crossing within the European Economic Area (EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) that remains open to Russians on a tourist visa.
“Norway stands with its allies in responding to the brutal war of aggression waged by Russia in Ukraine,” its head of diplomacy, Anniken Huitfeldt, said 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 sanctions imposed by Brussels since the war broke out on February 24, 2022.
By closing the border to Russian vehicles from midnight (10 p.m. GMT) on the night of October 2nd to 3rd, it imitates a measure already taken by Russia’s EU bordering states (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland ) was taken in accordance with the EU Agreement Recommendations of the European Commission.
Moscow, in turn, denounced “absurd” restrictions.
The ban applies only to vehicles with fewer than nine seats and provides for some exceptions, such as in cases of humanitarian emergencies and diplomatic cars or cars of European citizens residing in Russia.