Norway has ordered its military alert level raised in response to Russia's war on Ukraine.
The increase in the alert level is designed to reinforce surveillance and prevention efforts around infrastructure and facilities, News 360 reported Monday.
"This is the most severe security situation in several decades," Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said.
"There are no indications that Russia is expanding its warfare to other countries, but the increased tensions make us more exposed to threats, intelligence operations, and influence campaigns.
"We must be more vigilant," he added. "I don't believe ordinary people will notice any change."
Reuters reported Norway is also seeking to bring its new fleet of U.S.-made P-8 Poseidon submarine-hunting aircraft into full operation at a faster pace than was initially planned, the chief of defense, General Eirik Kristoffersen, said.
Norway became the major European supplier of natural gas after action was taken in recent months against Russia, News 360 said.
The continental gas network had suffered a series of explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September.
European officials said the rupture of major gas pipelines from Russia to Germany appeared to be a deliberate attack, with top Polish and Ukrainian leaders blaming Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has two goals in mind behind the Kremlin's alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, including undermining Western resolve and shipments of weapons to Ukraine and dividing the West, as well as winning the propaganda war around the world, top intelligence expert John Jordan told Newsmax on Sept. 28.
"This is what they're trying to do: Raise the temperature, increase the fear level in Europe — both in terms of escalation in the nuclear domain — as well as threaten widening the war into the Baltic and threatening to undermine or negate Europe's efforts to mitigate the loss of Russian natural gas," Jordan said on Newsmax's "John Bachman Now."
"Because they can't win on the battlefield, they have to win in these other spheres; and that's what they're trying to do.
Norwegian oil and gas workers have noticed unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead, The Associated Press reported.
Military experts suspect the drones were sent by Moscow.
They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights, according to the AP.
Meanwhile Reuters reported that Russia's defense ministry claimed British navy personnel were responsible for the explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines directly accusing a leading NATO member of sabotaging critical Russian infrastructure.
The defense ministry did not give evidence for its claim.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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