Norwegians falling for Russian honey traps

Powerful Norwegians are increasingly being blackmailed into working for Russia's spy agencies after falling for Cold War-style honey traps involving vodka and beautiful women, Norway's Police Security Service (PST) has warned.

Arne Christian Haugstøyl, PST’s head of counter-intelligence, said that the agency had uncovered a growing number of incidents where Norwegians had been put under pressure.

“We have received reports of Norwegian citizens who have been blackmailed to deliver information to Russian authorities,” he told Norway’s state broadcaster NRK. “This is an alarming development that we must be more aware of.”

According to NRK several Norwegian MPs have admitted to speaking to PST about their contacts with Russians, although none would discuss the reasons for PST’s interest.

Haugstøyl said that PST feared there could be a number of Norwegians in prominent positions who had already been entrapped and were being used by Russian intelligence as sources of information.