The Norwegian counterintelligence services (PST) revealed on Friday (October 28th) the identity, according to them, of an alleged illegal Russian agent suspected of spying for Russia by posing as a Brazilian researcher.
Admitted in the fall of 2021 as a lecturer at the Norwegian University of Tromsø in the strategic Arctic region, the individual was arrested on Monday and placed, initially, in internment for violation of the laws on the immigration, with a view to deportation.
The investigation has since been expanded to cover suspicions of "
illegal espionage directed against state secrets likely to harm the fundamental interests of the nation
", facts punishable in Norway by three years in prison.
Placed in pre-trial detention
On Friday, the PST identified the suspect as Mikhail Mikushin, a Russian born in 1978, while the person concerned, who has a Brazilian passport, presents himself as a 37-year-old Brazilian by the name of José Assis Giammaria.
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The person concerned rejects the charges against him but agreed on Friday to be placed in pre-trial detention for four weeks.
An "
illegal agent
" is a spy who is extremely difficult and rare to flush out because he is trying to settle down permanently in a foreign country to weave a network of contacts there, set up information channels and break into environments with sensitive information.
At the University of Tromsø, the researcher worked on Norwegian policy in the Far North - where Norway shares 198 km of border with Russia - and on hybrid threats, according to the PST.
Norway denounces "spying"
"
The mere fact of entering the circles of researchers who are the suppliers of the authorities for the definition of their policy is of real national interest
", argued a PST official Thomas Blom during a press conference. Friday.
Against a backdrop of acute tensions between Moscow and the West due to the war in Ukraine, the Russian Embassy in Norway has for its part denounced
the "spying
" which it says is going on in the Scandinavian country.
Having become Europe's leading gas supplier since the reduction in Russian deliveries, Norway has reinforced its vigilance and security around its strategic installations, particularly energy ones.
In recent weeks, Norwegian police have arrested nearly a dozen Russian citizens accused of flying drones over its territory, in violation of a ban imposed because of the war in Ukraine, or having violated bans on photography on sensitive sites.