A senior member of Russia’s defense and security committee told Russian TV that Norway has been added to the list of potential targets for a nuclear strike after Norway agreed to host 330 U.S. Marines for a rotational training deployment.

Norway has allowed other NATO militaries to use its country for cold weather training for years.

The Marines rotating into Norway are expected to stay at Værnes, an area 600 miles from the border with Russia.

A deputy chairman of Russia’s defense and security committee made the threats, saying, “How should we react to this? We have never before had Norway on the list of targets for our strategic weapons. But if this develops, Norway’s population will suffer.”

He later said, “Because we need to react against definitive military threats. And we have things to react to, I might as well tell it like it is.”

It’s not clear how the Marines provide a definitive military threat to Russia. While significant U.S. hardware is cached within Norway, the 330 Marines would have to invade through famously neutral Sweden to use a 700-mile route. Going around would add on hundreds of miles of travel distance and logistics problems.

And even Marines would struggle if they took on the Russian military in such small numbers.

Meanwhile, the U.S. already has troops permanently stationed in Germany, which is about the same distance from Russia, as well as service members on training rotations in Estonia, Latvia, and Ukraine — all of which share a border with Russia.

The Air Force, meanwhile, has forces permanently deployed to Incirlik, Turkey, which is also much closer to Russia than Værnes.

So it’s doubtful that Russia’s bluster is really about countering a valid military threat. More likely, this is Russia protesting what it sees as its continuing isolation as more and more countries deepen their ties with NATO.

Norway, for its part, insists that the Russian reaction to a training rotation of Marines is ridiculous.

The country’s defense minister told journalists, “There is no objective reason for the Russians to react to this. But the Russians are reacting at the moment in the same way toward almost everything the NATO countries are doing.”

Tensions between Russia and NATO have been on the rise, partially due to conflicting agendas in Syria where the U.S. and Russia are both conducting air strikes. But the dispute also comes from disagreements over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and threatening actions, such as the Russian abduction and jailing of an Estonian intelligence officer.

(businessinsider)

The Russian embassy in Oslo said: “Taking into account multiple statements of Norwegian officials about the absence of threat from Russia to Norway we would like to understand for what purposes is Norway so much willing to increase its military potential, in particular through stationing of American forces in Vaernes?”

The Norwegian government announced in a news release Monday that it had approved a “limited rotational force presence” of about 330 Marines, to be based in Vaernes, near where the Marine Corps has thousands of vehicles and other key pieces of gear stored year-round in climate-controlled caves.

USA and Norwegian officials celebrated the move, which they say will “have positive implications”, according to CNN.

The plan could see around 300 American special forces deployed at the Vaernes base near Trondheim, which lies around 600 miles from the frontier with Russian Federation.

“The United States are our most important ally and we have a near bilateral relationship that we wish to develop”, Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a statement. “The defense of Norway is dependent on allied reinforcement and it is crucial for Norwegian security that our allies get the knowledge required to operate in Norway, together with Norwegian forces”.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation announced in July the deployment of four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states to prevent what it called “Russian incursion”.

Norway’s government argues that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops are already training regularly in the country and that the deployment of troops does not equate to the opening of a permanent American base. A report called “The Coming Storm” claims that “the scenario included the speedy seizure of northern Norway, the Åland islands., the Swedish island of Gotland and the Danish island of Bornholm”. Norway has been a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member since 1949, but under a deal with Russian Federation it had prevously said it would not allow foreign troops on its land. “As the USA designs its national contributions across Europe, we want to have a very balanced approach”, Douglas Lute told a news conference.

“This US initiative is welcome and also fits well within ongoing processes in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to increase exercises, training and interoperability within the Alliance”, she said.

The air-conditioned bunkers span much of central Norway and were used in the 1980s to store U.S. equipment during the Cold War.

The country’s Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday that the USA troops were “highly welcome” in Norway, one of the few North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members to share a border with Russian Federation.

(crcconnection)

Russia expressed surprise Friday about the mooted deployment of US troops in neighboring Norway.

“Taking into account multiple statements made by Norwegian officials about the absence of threat from Russia to Norway, we would like to understand why Norway is so much willing to increase its military potential, in particular through the stationing of American forces in Vaernes,” Maxime Gourov, the spokesman at the Russian embassy in Oslo said in an email sent to AFP.

Vaernes lies about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the Russian-Norwegian frontier.

On October 10, the Norwegian defence ministry said its military and that of the United States were holding preliminary discussions about the possibility of such a deployment and about “additional training and storage.”

“It may be something that is carried out on a rotational basis… (but) there is no question of permanent deployment,” a ministry spokesman, Ann Kristin Salbuvik, told AFP.

The tentative discussions take place against a backdrop of increasing tensions between Russia and the West, notably over Ukraine and the conflict in Syria.

Also on October 10, the Norwegian newspaper Adresseavisen said the Pentagon wanted to station 300 US Marines at Vaernes and that this could take place in January.

The US has vast amounts of military equipment prepositioned in Norway, notably in tunnels dug into mountains.

“Having a rotational presence in Norway enhances the collective ability of our two forces to work together,” Niel Nelson, the US general in charge of the Marine Corps in Europe and Africa, was quoted as saying by American media this week.

Before joining NATO in 1949, Norway allayed Russian fears by undertaking not to open its territory to foreign combat troops so long as Norway was not attacked or threatened with attack.

This pledge was later amended to allow foreign troops to conduct manoeuvres in Norway.

“The policy of non-stationing (of foreign troops), which even withstood the test of the Cold War, has always been an advantage for Norway as a partner over other NATO countries,” said Gourov.

In July, NATO announced it would deploy, also on a rotational basis, four multinational battalions to Poland and to Baltic states to deter any Russian incursion.

(By Agence France-Presse/ defencetalk)