MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Embassy in Oslo has dismissed as a gross provocation a report published by a Norwegian media outlet that a Russian special ops unit was allegedly carrying out a mission in the kingdom, the Russian diplomatic mission said on its Facebook page on Monday.
"Information published in an article by Aldrimer.no on September 27, 2019 on alleged actions by a Russian special forces unit in Spitsbergen is fake news. We cannot call it otherwise than a gross provocation. We consider this publication as part and parcel of the ongoing systemic work carried out by certain circles in Norway on imposing an image of an enemy on Russia," the embassy said.
The diplomatic mission has not ruled out that this bogus story could be a clumsy attempt to justify the allocation of additional funds for struggling against the so-called "Russian threat." This comes ahead of the scheduled presentation of the defense budget and recommendations on a long-term plan on the armed forces’ development this October, it said.
"We believe that these methods run counter to journalist ethics," the embassy stressed.