Authorities in Norway are complaining that they are being unfairly blackmailed by Russians. According to the Norwegians, the Russians are tricking them into revealing highly important state secrets by loosening them up with vodka and attractive ladies.
This is a similar practice to what took place during the Cold War. During this tense period, Russians were known to encourage large amounts of drinking. They would use seductive women in negotiations in order to get their intoxicated enemies to reveal top secret information.
Now it appears that Russia is reviving the technique, as many Norwegians are falling into the sexy traps. Several Norwegian government workers have already come forward in order to admit to their supervisors that they had been tricked by the Russians.
According to the head of counterintelligence for Norway’s Police Security Service Arne Christian Haugstøyl, the trend is very alarming, and Norwegian ambassadors should start being more careful when dealing with Russian officials. He says that drinking and being enticed by women are no excuses for revealing critical secrets of the state. Haugstøyl made these comments while he was meeting with the Norwegian state broadcaster NPK.
Haugstøyl believes that the Norwegian officials are mostly being tricked by the Russians when they are negotiating abroad. The Russians will do everything within their power in order to make the Norwegians feel comfortable and loosened up. Simply put, the Norwegians become too trusting when they are traveling outside of their country.
The problem might be even worse than Norwegian officials originally believe because some of the tricked workers will undoubtedly feel pressure not to report the problem to their supervisors when they return from a trip. As a result, many of the incidents might be going unnoticed. This really isn’t much of a surprise, as admitting to your boss that you got too drunk and revealed a key secret isn’t the easiest thing to do.
In the end, it just goes to show that the Russians will employ any underhanded tactic it takes in order to gain an advantage.
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