Norway announced on Friday the closure of its borders to vehicles registered in Russia, barring a few exceptions, in a further toughening due to the war in Ukraine.
Norway and Russia share 198 kilometres 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 still open to Russians with tourist visas.
“Norway stands with its allies in responding to the brutal war of aggression that Russia is waging in Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in a statement.
She added that it was important for the sanctions to be effective so that the revenue Moscow needs to finance the war can be blocked as much as possible.
The Scandinavian country is not a member of the European Union but has adopted almost all the sanctions imposed by Brussels since the outbreak of the war on 24 February 2022.
By closing its border to Russian vehicles from midnight (22:00 GMT) on the night of 2 to 3 October, it is imitating a measure already taken by the EU countries bordering Russia (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) in line with the recommendations of the European Commission.
Moscow, for its part, denounced the restrictions as "absurd."
The ban applies only to vehicles with fewer than nine seats, with a few exceptions such as humanitarian emergencies, diplomatic cars and vehicles belonging to European citizens resident in Russia.
