Consul General Konygin closes doors in Kirkenes after dialogue with Oslo
Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms the situation, but says it is not a question of expelling diplomats.
The Consulate General writes on X (twitter) that consular services will temporarily not be provided as Norway has demanded a reduction of diplomats from October 17.
Ragnhild Simenstad, spokesperson with the Foreign Ministry in Oslo confirms the situation to the Barents Observer.
She says “we have over time had dialogue with the Russian side to secure diplomatic presence in both countries.”
Simenstad underlines that it is not a question about expelling diplomats from Norway.
The Russian Embassy writes on Facebook that for consular issues only two diplomats will remain in Oslo. It is not clear if the move to shut down consular services in Kirkenes is permanent, or temporarily.
Nikolai Konygin, who has been Consul General in Kirkenes since autumn 2019, was previously working at the visa-section with Russia’s Consulate in Oslo. Since Feburaury 2022, the diplomat has for the most spent his time traveling around in northern Norway laying flowers at the many obelisks and monuments in memory of WW2 Soviet prisoners of war and fallen soldiers that participated in the 1944 liberation of eastern Finnmark.
Russia opened its Consulate General in Kirkenes in 1993 under an agreement facilitating for a Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk. Norway, however, decided to close its diplomatic mission in the north Russian city in 2022 following what the Barents Observer has reasons to belive was “security concerns” after both diplomats and the local employees over time were harassed.
No comments in Kirkenes
No one inside were willing to talk about the closure in Kirkenes when the Barents Observer rang the door bell at the consulate for a comment.
Norway is today the only Nordic country that still has an open Consulate General in St. Petersburg, in addition to its low-on-staff embassy in Moscow.
With doors now closed in Kirkenes, Russia’s remaining diplomatic missions in Norway is limited to the embassy at Drammensveien 74 in Oslo and its attached visa-section and trade mission.
Barentsburg
Also Russia’s Consulate General in in Barentsburg, the coal mining settlement on Svalbard, has suspended its consular services.
“Only one diplomat will remain,” the Consulate writes on Telegram and adds that also on-site consular services in Longyearbyen are suspended.
A wave of closing missions and reducing the number of diplomatic staff between Russia and the Nordic countries followed in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow’s Consulate Generals have closed doors one after the other in Turku, Gothenburg, Lappeenranta, while Finnish and Swedish diplomatic missions closed in St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Petrozavodsk and Murmansk.
In Moscow, Norway only has a few diplomats at the embassy following a tit-for-tat move after Oslo along with most other European nations in 2022 expelled hundreds of intelligence officers. From Oslo, 15 persons “engaging in activities that are not compatible with their diplomatic status” were ordered to leave.
Located in Kirkenes, Norway, just a few kilometres from the borders to Russia and Finland, the Barents Observer is dedicated to cross-border journalism in Scandinavia, Russia and the wider Arctic.
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