KIRKENES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2019) Norwegian national Frode Berg, who is serving a jail term in Russia on espionage charges, can return home at any moment, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
On Thursday, media reported that Berg had been recommended for pardon to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Other reports suggested that the Norwegian national could be released as part of a trilateral spy swap deal, including Norway and Lithuania. On Thursday, Russian Ambassador in Olso Teymuraz Ramishvili said he believed Norway's efforts to secure Berg's release would yield results soon.
"Any moment," Lavrov told a Norwegian reporter asked when Berg could return home, as aired live by the Norwegian Nyhetskanalen 2 tv channel.
The foreign minister said that the situation involving Berg had not affected relations between Oslo and Moscow.
Lavrov is currently visiting Kirkenes where the foreign minister will meet with his Norwegian counterpart, Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide.
Berg, a retired Norwegian border agent, was detained in Moscow in late 2017 upon receiving documents that contained classified information concerning the Russian Navy. Last April, a Russian court sentenced him to 14 years in a high-security jail on espionage charges.
Berg has denied the charges, while his defense said he might have been used as a carrier of the classified documents by intelligence officers without being aware of it.
