A TV series about Russia’s fictional takeover of Norway’s abundant oil and gas resources has vexed Moscow, which says it has had enough of being portrayed as an aggressor.
The 10-episode series Okkupert (Occupied), which is to air in Norway starting next month, has ruffled Russian diplomats’ feathers amid already existing tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict in Ukraine.
“It’s definitely very regrettable that in the ... 70th anniversary of the victory of World War II, the authors of the series — as if they had forgotten about the heroic contribution of the Soviet army in the liberation of northern Norway from Nazi occupants — decided in the worst Cold War traditions to frighten the Norwegian audience with a non-existing threat from the east,” Russian Ambassador to Norway Vyacheslav Pavlovsky told reporters in an e-mail.
Based on a screenplay written by Norway’s hugely popular crime writer Jo Nesbo, the series depicts a Norway that “in the near future” plunges the planet into an international crisis by halting its oil and gas production following an environmental catastrophe.
Enter Russia, which takes over production of the black gold with the EU’s blessing, in a world where the US has pulled out of NATO.
The TV show is the most expensive ever made in Norway at 90 million Norwegian kroner (US$10.8 million).
“They’re commenting on a series they haven’t even seen yet,” director Erik Skjoldbjaerg said, adding the Russians were “opposed in principle.”
“We played a little with the geopolitical reality and we created a fictitious Norway, a fictitious Russia and a fictitious international context,” he said, adding that the show portrayed “a silk occupation” without a military invasion.
However, the Russians were not buying it.
“Though its authors are consistently emphasizing that it is fiction, countries that are shown in the film are quite real and Russia is unfortunately given a role of an aggressor,” Pavlovsky said.
However, he insisted there would be no “hysterics from the Russian side.”
The series, which premieres on Oct. 4 on TV2, comes at a sensitive time. The US and Europe have accused Russia of military interference in the Ukraine conflict, which has plunged the former Cold War adversaries into their frostiest relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“The idea was born and production began way before the political situation arose in Ukraine,” Skjoldbjaerg said.
“Occupied is in no way a commentary on this situation,” he added.
“First and foremost, it’s about Norway and Norwegians, about what happens in an occupied country where life appears to go on as normal, but where some people are ready to sacrifice themselves to fight for freedom,” TV2 head of drama productions Christopher Haug said.
The commercial channel said it had met with Russian embassy officials early on in the production phase, but it appears those talks did little to allay Moscow’s concerns.
Norway and Russia have generally enjoyed good neighborly relations, although they have deteriorated over the Ukraine crisis. Even though it is not a member of the EU, the Scandinavian country had adopted the same economic sanctions as the 28-nation bloc against Russia, which has retaliated with similar measures.
On the military front, Oslo last year observed an uptick in Russian activity off its Arctic coast.
“We don’t think Russia poses a military threat to Norway, but we need to continue to keep an eye on what is going on in our proximity,” Norwegian Chief of Defence Haakon Bruun-Hanssen said in April.
Weeks earlier, Norwegian Minister of Defence Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide told CNN that a normalization of ties with Moscow was impossible, a statement she later softened.
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