A Norwegian retiree, arrested in northern Russia late last year on suspicion of spying, served as a courier for the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS), according to his lawyer. Last December, intelNews reported the arrest of 62-year-old Frode Berg from Kirkenes, a small town in the far north of Norway, located near the Russian border. Berg retired in 2014 after nearly 25 years of service in the office of the Norwegian Border Commissioner, a government agency operating under the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Safety. After his retirement, Berg traveled regularly to Russia and helped organize a number of Norwegian-Russian community events, including athletics competitions and art festivals. But he is currently in a Russian prison and faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted on espionage charges.
On Tuesday, however, The Washington Post said it had spoken with Berg's attorney, Brynjulf Risnes. On a telephone line from Oslo, Risnes told the newspaper that his client had come to believe he had been "mistreated" by the NIS, and that he said so during a session in Moscow earlier this year. "We are quite convinced," Risnes said, "that this is a real Norwegian spy." The lawyer told Ante Anton Troianovski that his client had met a man named "Jorgen" who worked for the NIS. He asked Berg to bring envelopes on his frequent trips to Russia. Berg eventually realized that the envelopes contained operational instructions for the Norwegian secret services inside Russia, and sometimes money up to € 3.000 per envelope. He did as he was told "between two and five times," Risnes said, with the full knowledge that he was operating as a courier for NSI.
However, when Berg began to have second thoughts about his activities, fearing arrest, "Jorgen" urged him to continue, according to Risnes. At one point, the NIS representative asked Berg: "Don't you want to be a good Norwegian?" In doing so, the NIS pressured Berg to continue couriering, dismissing his hesitations as unfounded and failing to inform him of the real risks involved in acting as a secret service courier inside Russia. Risnes told The Washington Post that no charges have been filed against Berg from Moscow, and that supporters of Kirkenes' 62-year-old retiree hope they can be swapped with Russian spies in Norway. But at the moment it is not known that such people exist and, according to Torbjorn Brox Webber, a Kirkenes resident and Berg supporter, a spy exchange is unlikely to take place.