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| - Norway said Wednesday it had expelled a Russian diplomat, just days after arresting a Norwegian man suspected of passing sensitive information to Moscow. The country's PST intelligence agency on Monday said the Norwegian man was "formally suspected of providing information to a foreign country," which it later confirmed was Russia. "We have informed the Russian ambassador that an employee of the Russian embassy is undesirable as a diplomat and will be asked to leave Norway," said a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Siri Svendsen. She said the person had engaged in acts "not compatible with his status as a diplomat." The diplomat, who works in the embassy's trade section, has until the end of the week to leave the country. Russia has vowed a response. The man was with the Norwegian when the latter was arrested at an Oslo restaurant on Saturday. The Norwegian risks up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of espionage. The 50-year-old worked at DNV GL, a company that provides certification for insurance and other purposes for the shipping, oil and gas and renewables industries. The company said the employee was in its oil and gas division but "did not have security clearance and has therefore not worked on projects for the defence industry, the Norwegian Armed Forces or other governmental agencies where security clearance is a prerequisite." "At the time of his arrest, he led a joint industry project on 3D printing," it said in a statement. A judge on Monday ordered him held in custody for four weeks, the first two in isolation. Court documents show that the Norwegian, identified as Harsharn Singh Tathgar, told investigators he had handed over information in exchange for "not insignificant sums in cash", but had insisted the information was not harmful to the nation's interests. "Russia will of course draw its own conclusions," the Russian embassy in Oslo said, adding that it had submitted a protest to the Norwegian foreign ministry for violating a diplomatic statute. On Facebook, the embassy wrote that Russia's deputy trade representative had been "arrested without basis". According to Norway, the man was not detained. "He was searched and was refused the opportunity to contact the embassy or call an employee of the consular section at the scene of the incident," the embassy said. "DNV GL... has several years of experience cooperating with Russian companies and organisms tasked with oil and gas extraction, shipbuilding, and infrastructure projects. Such cooperation has never raised any questions on the Norwegian side," it added. In its annual report published in February, PST warned of the risk of espionage in several sectors of society -- political, financial, defence and research circles, among others -- singling out Russia, China and Iran as particular threats. In recent decades several spy cases have marred ties between NATO member Norway and Russia, which share a border in the Arctic Circle. phy/wdb/po/tgb
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