Norway’s mission in Moscow gets defence attaché from northern border
Former Commissioner on the Norwegian - Russian border Jens Arne Høilund is appointed as defence attaché with the Embassy in Moscow.
Høilund, who served as the Border Commissioner from 2020 to 2025, was appointed as defence attaché to Russia by the Government on February 14.
Norway suspended all military cooperation with Russia after Moscow launched its war against Ukraine in 2014. However, contacts and exchange of information continued between border authorities. The two countries share a 198 km land border and a roughly 1,750 kilometre long maritime border across the Barents Sea and part of the Arctic Ocean.
With Høilund's departure, Norway for the first time recruited a Border Commissioner from the police rather than the military. The new Commissioner, Gøran Johansen Stenseth, was previously head of the Finnmark Police's department for border and immigration control.
Russia's border is guarded by the FSB, both at sea and on land.
The Norwegian-Russian land border is considered to be one of the least troublesome external borders among the Schengen member states. A few illegal crossings have been recorded in recent years, including a few defectors from the Russian military and paramilitary forces after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Excluding the years of the pandemic, the legal traffic across the border has not seen lower numbers since before the collapse of the Soviet Union. 51,534 crossings took place between the two countries in 2025, down 11% on a year-over-year (YoY) basis.
Figures from the Police show a further drop of 10% in traffic in 2026 compared with the same month in 2025.
Last fall the European Commission granted €16,4 million to improve security along Norway's border with Russia.
New fences will come at the most exposed parts of the border, mainly at Skafferhullet and near Storskog, the official checkpoint for traffic between the two countries.
