Norwegian expelled from Russia

Larsen and two research colleagues was stopped by Customs officers at the airport in Murmansk in July last year on their way to Arkhangelsk for a geological field study together with local Russian researchers. The field work was a part of a research program within the International Polar Year (IPY).

The Customs officers confiscated the field study equipment and Eiliv Larsen was interrogated by FSB officials in Murmansk.

The FSB officers claimed some secret maps were found in Larsen’s luggage.

The maps in question were topographical maps Larsen had bought in a bookstore in Arkhangelsk on a previous trip. In the Soviet time, such maps were classified as “secret” but today stamped “unclassified.”

One of the confiscated maps was however without the “unclassified” stamp, but Larsen also had another copy of the very same map with the needed stamp “unclassified.”

Norwegian diplomats with the Consulate General in Murmansk have assisted Larsen and NGU, trying to clarify the problems with FSB. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been involved in the case.

-I don’t know my legal position in Russia just now, says Larsen wondering if he will be charged with espionage if he returns to Russia. The FSB officers in Murmansk told Larsen during the interrogation that he was under suspicion of espionage and expelled from Russia for a period of ten years, according to an article posted at NGU’s web-portal.

Eiliv Larsen has been a pioneer in the geological research cooperation between Norway and the Russian part of the Barents Region. He has been traveling to Russia since the early 90teis, and been involved in several projects studying the dissemination of the icecap in Northwest-Russia during the last ice age.