Internal FBI disciplinary files dating back to 2017 reveal that ‘scores’ of FBI employees have been busted over the past five years engaging in various illegal and unethical conduct, including sexual misconduct, drunk driving, property theft, assaulting a child losing their service weapons and assaulting a child, Just the News reports.

Rampant sexual misconduct included inappropriate affairs with felons in prison, as well as confidential sources and subordinate employees. And while sexual transgressions often resulted in firings, other things such as drunk driving an lost weapons offenses did not.

One report from April 2017 listed general examples of past FBI misconduct, including one agent dismissed for admitting to having sexually molested his daughter and granddaughter for years. Another acted “as an agent of a foreign government.” One stole drug evidence to feed a heroin addiction, while another employee pulled a gun on a private citizen during an incident of road rage. The female bystander in question was thrown up “against a concrete lane divider, causing temporary loss of consciousness and large contusion.” 

Other reports detail an employee who shot and killed his neighbor’s dog and another who was driving drunk — with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit — and killed an 18-year-old in the process. Yet not all of these subjects were said to have served prison time, and some even kept their jobs.  -Just the News

In another incident, an agent had an unsecured M4 carbine rifle stolen from his government vehicle during a Starbucks run – which resulted in a mere two-week suspension, the whistleblower records provided to JTN show.

“Although there was a lockbox in the trunk for storage of weapons and sensitive items,” the agent shoved the rifle bag behind the front passenger seat. “While Employee was in the Starbucks, the Bucar was burglarized. The rear passenger, rear driver, and tailgate windows were broken, and the rifle bag containing the M4 was stolen.”

The reports show there were at least 23 cases of agents and Bureau staff driving under the influence (DUI) but only five resulted in termination, while the others received suspensions or retired. There were several other incidents involving alcohol unrelated to driving that also drew short-term suspensions.

At least three dozen agents reported guns being lost, stolen or handled unsafely, including one agent who accidentally discharged his weapon and shot a hole through the floor of his hotel room. -Just the News

In another case, a supervisory employee “hit his minor child,” and was only busted after the kid’s school “noticed bruises and contacted Child Protective Services.” After OPR discovered that the child had been “coached to minimize what happened” and the agent took bureau-mandated parenting classes, the employee received just a 40-day suspension for “Assault and Battery.”

Another employee sent “a threatening and vile email to his girlfriend’s ex-husband.” When a process server attempted to serve a temporary restraining order (TRO) on him, he threatened to shoot him, then failed to report the incident to his supervisor. He received a 25-day suspension.

The misconduct was catalogued in a quarterly email sent to all Bureau employees by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which were suspended for a period of seven months in 2021-2022 due to complaints that “employees harmed by misconduct” may feel shamed – however, the bureau resumed publication over the belief that it may dissuade employees from committing crimes or violations in the future.

“OPR suspended sending our quarterly email that details employee misconduct and its consequences,” read an April 2022 email. “We wanted to weigh the value of publishing this information with the discomfort employees harmed by misconduct may feel at its having been published.”

An employee “admitted engaging in a romantic relationship with an incarcerated felon and sending him money,” according to the report. The employee “failed to report contact with the felon,” yet only received a suspension of 15 days.

A similar situation from the fallout of a failed “romantic relationship” caused an employee to remove “certain jointly-owned property from the apartment of Employee’s former significant other and damaged other property,” the email reported. “Although no criminal charges were filed, Employee was arrested for vandalism and theft.” Final verdict: 14-day suspension. -JtN

One retired agent went on record with JTN, where he suggested that the bureau may be getting more serious about firing employees for certain offenses. He was, however, concerned by the light penalties for things such as alcohol offenses.

“I was seeing that in a lot of cases, particularly in the DUIs, there was not many dismissals,” retired Assistant Director Kevin Brock told the outlet. “They were getting, you know, 20, 30, 40 days of suspension without pay. And that struck me as something a little bit of a divergence from the past. Louis Freeh, when he was director, drew a bright line. He said anybody who misuses alcohol and gets in a bureau car is going to be dismissed. And that stopped a lot of bad behavior.”

So it’s not a question of ‘who’s watching the watchers,’ rather, why are the bad eggs escaping meaningful punishment for their actions? Oh right, this is the same agency that knowingly used fabricated evidence as part of a scheme to frame Donald Trump as a Russian asset, and then misled Congress.

By Rachel Premack of FreightWaves

In a time of record-low unemployment, a crucial segment of the supply chain has seen massive job cuts: the freight brokerage industry. 

Freight brokerage companies have cut nearly 1,000 jobs in mass layoffs in 2023. Brokers slashed more than 700 payrolls the previous year. 

A freight broker is the intermediary between a carrier (or transportation provider, like a truck driver) and a shipper (whoever is trying to move goods, like a retailer or manufacturer). There are also freight forwarders, who handle international shipments and the customs involved. 

Such layoffs aren’t surprising to those who have followed supply-chain news the last few years. Through the middle of 2020 to the end of ’21, all modes of freight transportation were unusually hot. 

The ratio of inventories to sales dropped to a record low by June 2020, indicating retailers had unusually low levels of merchandise to meet consumer demand. That ratio dipped even lower through 2020 and much of ’21 before beginning to slowly climb up again by November 2021.

‘Crisis hiring’ in freight brokerage

Such demand for merchandise translated to more freight demand. The amount of shippers calling for more transportation capacity shot up quickly in spring and summer 2020 as consumers began to spend their stimulus bucks and paychecks on durable goods, like exercise bikes and outdoor furniture. However, that freight capacity didn’t reenter the market at the same time. 

That meant shippers that normally handled their freight transportation needs in-house had to go to some sort of intermediary, said Benchmark transportation analyst Chris Kuhn.

This made freight brokers unusually rich. C.H. Robinson, the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based freight brokerage giant, saw its net income jump by 66.7% in 2021 compared to the year before.

“There was just this lack of capacity in the market,” Kuhn said. “That drove prices up to unprecedented levels.”

As a result, third-party freight companies needed to scale up their hiring, too, according to Wells Fargo senior analyst Allison Poliniak-Cusic. C.H. Robinson, for example, grew its overall head count by 43% by the end of 2021 compared to the previous year. 

“I would almost call it crisis hiring,” Poliniak-Cusic told FreightWaves. “[They were] building that head count up to manage some of the unusual volatility in the market that they were dealing with at the time to make sure the customers’ issues were met.”

This bull run crashed in spring and summer 2022. Consumer demand began to moderate in early ’22, as some started spending cash on travel or other in-person services while others braced for inflation. In the months following, some of the largest freight brokers and forwarding companies have reduced head counts. 

“Now that we’re hopefully past this crisis, your profit at a brokerage is likely lower, [and] your cash flow is a little bit more limited than maybe it had been during the pandemic,” Poliniak-Cusic said. “You have to probably be a little bit more disciplined on investments going forward.”

International looking especially rough

It’s a classic boom-and-bust cycle, but it’s particularly bad for a few types of intermediaries. Freight forwarders, who deal with international shipments, are especially challenged at this time. Expeditors International (NASDAQ: EXPD), one of the largest freight forwarding companies, reported particularly brutal fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday with an operating income down 47% from the year prior. 

COVID-19 lockdowns in China and the war in Ukraine have slammed U.S. freight companies that operate overseas.

“We were especially impacted in North Asia, our second-largest geography, as the lingering effects of the lockdowns contributed to the largest declines in our air tonnage and ocean volumes in at least a decade,” Expeditors CEO Jeffrey Musser said on the call with investors.

The spot-vs.-contract tension

There are two markets in trucking. One is the contract market, where truckloads are moved on a prearranged agreement. The second is the spot market, where truck capacity is bid on demand. 

The sneaky side of trucking is that you don’t actually have to honor your contracted freight as a truck driver — if you can move more expensive freight on the spot market. And shippers who have contracts with trucking companies, where rates are way above the spot price, can usually break their contracts for as long as they wish to move their loads on the spot market. 

(Of course, this is not the best way to build a happy client base, so it’s best to not engage in this too often.)

When the trucking market is hot, spot rates are usually just a few cents below or even slightly above contract rates. That indicates trucking services are in demand, though shippers may also be spending more than they previously planned for freight services. And that cost will likely trickle to the consumer.

However, since the beginning of 2022, the spread between spot and contract rates have rapidly turned negative.

Here’s the weird thing: Low spot rates are sometimes a win for freight brokers. The spot rate resembles what brokers pay a trucking company. So, if they can still claim the same or a slightly lower rate from the shipper, that means they can earn a larger margin.

However, the market has gotten so rough for trucking that such wins are no longer feasible. Even though margins are sweeter for brokers than they were in 2021, freight volumes are also lower than they were at that time. Brokers might be able to win a larger piece of the proverbial pie, but that pie is getting smaller. 

What’s more, there are just way too many brokers for the amount of freight that needs to move right now. There’s a “crisis level” of brokers but a volume of freight that resembles pre-COVID buying patterns. 

And that means layoffs. 

Via The Cradle,

On Thursday, Israel joined 140 other UN member states voting in favor of a nonbinding resolution that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces. “For the past year, Israel has stood alongside the people of Ukraine in solidarity both on the ground and here in the UN,” Tel Aviv’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan said following the vote.

The resolution, drafted by Ukraine in consultation with its western allies, passed 141-7, with 32 abstentions. Belarus, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea, and Mali were the only member states to vote against the resolution.

Israel’s condemnation of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory happened just one day after Israeli occupation troops killed 11 Palestinians and injured over 100 in the West Bank city of Nablus and just hours after Israeli jets bombed a residential area in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this week, the US succeeded in stopping a vote at the UN Security Council against the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, with the help of the UAE and the Palestinian Authority (given the PA withdrew the bill under pressure). 

In 2022 Israel was the target of more UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions than every other country combined.

India, representing one of the largest populations, explained its abstention as follows:

Excerpts from PR @ruchirakamboj’s explanation of vote at the #UNGA Emergency Special Session on #Ukraine today. pic.twitter.com/tUptpHj09j

— India at UN, NY (@IndiaUNNewYork) February 24, 2023

Moreover, from 2006 through 2022, the UN Human Rights Council adopted 99 resolutions against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territory and the crimes committed against Palestinian civilians living under apartheid.

A day ahead of the UN vote against Russia, Venezuelan Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Joaquín Pérez Ayestarán, said that all countries without exception “must stringently comply with the United Nations Charter,” in a veiled dig at the US and its allies, who have historically violated the charter with total impunity.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that demands #Russia leave #Ukraine.

In favour: 141

Against: 7

Abstentions: 32 pic.twitter.com/WnEoRp94kx

— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) February 23, 2023

Since the start of the war in Ukraine a year ago, Israel has tried to stay on Moscow’s good side due to their military cooperation in Syria. However, in recent months Kiev and Washington have turned up the pressure on Tel Aviv to align with its western sponsors.

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is calling on the Biden Administration to halt all permitting and scoping for offshore wind projects until a comprehensive procedure to protect tribal interests is in place.

NCAI adopted this week a resolution that “strongly urges the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt all scoping and permitting for offshore wind projects until completion of a comprehensive and transparent procedure adequately protecting tribal environmental and sovereign interests is developed and implemented.”  

Native Americans also demand that Tribal Nations be included in the management, permitting, and development of power purchase agreements and both consulted and included in determining the terms and conditions of the agreements.

This should also include “negotiating fair compensation for the use of their lands and resources, inclusion in any revenues associated with such development of their traditional resources as well as ensuring that the development does not harm their environment or cultural heritage,” NCAI said in its resolution.

Offshore wind is one of the key pillars of the Biden Administration to reach a goal the United States set in 2021—to reach 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035.

Earlier this week, the White House said that the Administration will propose the first-ever Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sale as part of additional steps to boost the sector. The proposed sale includes a 102,480-acre area offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two areas offshore Galveston, Texas, one comprising 102,480 acres and the other comprising 96,786 acres, the Department of the Interior said on Wednesday.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is now seeking public comments on which, if any, of the two lease areas offshore Galveston should be offered in the Final Sale Notice. These areas have the potential to power almost 1.3 million homes with clean energy, the Department of the Interior said.  

A much hotter than expected Core PCE print has sparked a dramatic hawkish response across markets.

Expectations for The Fed’s terminal rate has spiked to 5.39% and H2 2023 rate-cut expectations have dwindled to single-digits (just 9bps priced in)…

Source: Bloomberg

The market is now fully pricing in 3 x 25bps rate-hikes at the next three FOMC meetings…

With the odds of a 50bps hike in March now up at around 25% (and a 25bps hike fully priced-in for

All of which sent stocks reeling, below yesterday’s lows…

And Treasury yields soaring higher at the short-end while the long-end has rallied (yields slower post-PCE)…

The dollar is surging higher, erasing all of the losses since the January Payrolls slump…

Will the 0DTE gamers BTFD in stocks again?

Authored by Austin Mann via Knowledge Leaders Capital blog,

Investor concerns over the potential for poor European growth in the foreseeable future have eased thanks to the flurry of economic data coming out stronger than expected this year. That same data though has led investors to again fear what they thought was behind them – inflation and the central bank. With three consecutive PMI beats from Europe’s three largest economies this week and generally sticky CPI numbers, investors are noticing that the European economy is not slowing fast enough, and the ECB is back in play.

Notice how German 10-year breakeven inflation changed direction in mid-January. This escalation of inflation expectations for the next 10-years has been sharp since January 19, rising over 40bps.

Equity markets have noticed and are beginning to price in the new, hawkish expectations.

With the Stoxx 600 closing down each day since Monday, we may be seeing investors begin to close the gap. According to the bond market, the expected main refinancing rate for December 2023 hit a low of 3.05% on January 17. From that date forward it has been steadily climbing higher.

At the same time, the solid uptrend in which European stocks began the year was halted by the turn in rates.

While we haven’t yet seen a reconciliation of equity prices downward like we have in the US markets, it’s clear that rising interest rates have halted the upward momentum in the European markets.

After two months in a row of MoM declines in spending, consensus forecasts both spending and incomes grew MoM in January and they were right but income grew by only 0.6% (+1.0% exp) while spending rose more than expected (+1.8% vs +1.4% exp). That is the biggest monthly jump in spending since March 2021…

Source: Bloomberg

And on a YoY basis, both income and spending accelerated in January…

Source: Bloomberg

The biggest driver of the MoM jump in PCE was Housing and Other Services…

Source: Bloomberg

Housing and Transportation are the biggest YoY drivers of PCE…

Source: Bloomberg

On the income side wages for private workers accelerated for the first time in 4 months, up 6.9% Y/Y, from 6.3% in Dec, but wage growth for govt workers slowed to 5.0% Y/Y, from 5.1%

Americans’ savings rate is now at 4.7%, up from 4.5% in Dec which was revised significantly higher (from 3.4% in Dec)…

The revisions are dramatic to say the least: what was 2.7% in Nov has become 4.0% and Jan is now 4.7%

But the real highlight of the report is the inflation signals from The Fed’s favorite Core PCE Deflator.. and it was not good news. Both the headline and core PCE Deflators printed hotter than expected, rising 5.4% YoY and 4.7% YoY respectively ( +5.0% and 4.3% exp respectively)…

Source: Bloomberg

So much for that ‘smooth’; ride lower in inflation that everyone hoped for.

Finally, we note that the market has dramatically repriced its inflation expectations (inflation swaps) in recent weeks, now at their highest for mid-2023 since November…

Source: Bloomberg

It seems the market may be on to something… and that’s not good for markets.

Authored by Ven Ram, Bloomberg cross-asset-class strategist,

Amid rising real and nominal yields, the S&P 500 Index has more than surrendered its gains of January in a easy-come, easy-go fashion. But there is an odd thing going on elsewhere: why would technology stocks not only hold onto their advance but also build on them?

You could talk about long duration, growth and blah, blah, blah, but the likely reason is that the rout in corporate junk bonds is sending high-risk, higher velocity and the highest speculative dollars right into the Nasdaq 100. If you had thrown all caution to the wind and parted your money in favor of the technology basket at the end of last year, you would have stunning returns of almost 12% in less than two months.

In the chamber next to where the Nasdaq dream is being spun a nightmare is playing out in junk bonds.

The yield-to-worst on the Bloomberg US corporate high-yield index is now approaching 9%.

By way of perspective, consider that the highest that number got to in recent memory was during the first wave of the pandemic when it reached 11.7% – so essentially the markets are now pretty much near panic.

If you needed further proof, just look at the money coming out of high-yield bond funds.

(Hat tip to Abigail Doolittle for the chart)

That script is, alas, not playing out as expected. At the start of the year, the cue lines were that inflation was so 2022, that a recession is around the corner and the Fed would panic and pivot immediately. Evidently it’s the investors who are in panic now, not the monetary authority.

But is that speculative money jumping from the frying pan into the fire by following the beeline to technology stocks?

Just consider this: at current levels, the Nasdaq 100 basket offers an earnings yield of 3.8%, which if you are in a benevolent mood may raise to 4.3% based on estimates for earnings that are yet to accrue this year — a bit like a farmer counting on his future produce on the hope that the sun will shine, the rains will come as foretold and the harvest will occur as he hopes.

In any case, let’s split the difference and assume an earnings yield of, say, 4%. But right now, if you go out and buy a one-year T-bill in the US, you would get about 5%.

If you think the US economy will roll over within that time frame, it’s a pretty safe bet that the T-bills will rally, and at least you wouldn’t have exposed your portfolio to the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of technology stocks. What’s not to like? Ask those chasing the Nasdaq rally.

Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,

Agustin Carstens, head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), believes the battle between cryptocurrency and fiat currencies has come to an end, with the latter emerging as the winner. Fiat currency refers to money that has legal tender by government decree.

“That battle has been won … A technology doesn’t make for trusted money,” Carstens said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

“Only the legal, historical infrastructure behind central banks can give great credibility” to money, he added.

Carstens is anticipating a “strong statement” from the G20 nations for stronger regulation on digital assets, pointing out that crypto as a financial activity can only exist “under certain conditions.”

Castens’ statements come after cryptocurrencies crashed over the past year, with Bitcoin – the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world – down by around 38 percent. After hitting a 2022 peak of around $47,450 in March, Bitcoin was trading at $23,700, as of Feb. 22, up around 60% from its Nov 2022 cycle lows.

The crash in cryptocurrencies is pegged on multiple factors. For one, rising interest rates made holding cash much more attractive than investing in risky and volatile assets like cryptocurrencies.

The crash of the LUNA coin in May added to the decline. At one point, LUNA was ranked as the seventh biggest cryptocurrency in the world. But following an unsustainable business model and other issues, LUNA declined by 96 percent in a single day in May 2022.

Confidence in the crypto market fell further in November when FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges at the time, filed for bankruptcy after concerns about the company’s balance sheet and subsequent withdrawals triggered a liquidity crisis.

Flaws of Cryptocurrencies

A report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in September 2022 that was co-authored by Carstens outlines three flaws that prevent cryptocurrencies from acting as a “sound basis for the monetary system.”

First is that cryptos lack a “sound nominal anchor.” Cryptocurrencies themselves are highly volatile.

Meanwhile, stablecoins, a type of crypto where its value is pegged to an asset like the U.S. dollar, “borrow credibility from real money issued by banks.”

Second, fiat money is anchored in a trusted institution like a central bank that guarantees the stability of the currency as well as the final settlement of transactions and their safety.

Crypto does not have such centralized government-level guarantees.

Third, the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies means that it relies on incentives to anonymous validators to confirm transactions in the form of rents and fees.

This prevents scalability and results in congestion.

“For example, when the Ethereum network (a blockchain widely used for DeFi applications) nears its transaction limit, fees rise exponentially. As a result, over the past two years, users have moved to other blockchains, resulting in growing fragmentation of the DeFi landscape,” the report notes.

DeFi is short for decentralized finance.

National Risks

In October last year, the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) issued a warning that digital assets like cryptocurrencies could essentially undermine the financial stability of the country.

Despite the distributed nature of crypto asset systems, operational risks can arise due to the concentration of key services or from vulnerabilities linked to the distributed ledger technology on which the assets rely, the agency stated.

“Crypto-asset activities could pose risks to the stability of the U.S. financial system and emphasizes the importance of appropriate regulation, including enforcement of existing laws. It is vital that government stakeholders collectively work to make progress on these recommendations,” the report warned.

In a blog post on Jan. 27, the White House cited dangers from cryptocurrencies, including potential financial losses, fraud, and the empowerment of America’s rivals.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan had placed cryptocurrencies on the administration’s radar in June 2021 following the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in May that year. Colonial was forced to pay the hackers 75 Bitcoins in ransom, which amounted to $4.4 million at the time.

In June 2021, former president Donald Trump had also indicated that he was not a fan of Bitcoin, pointing out that it was competing against the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world.

*  *  *

[ZH: In response to all that projection, ignorance, and hyperbole, we paraphrase from the bard himself (for added credibility, of course): “the fat man whose salary depends on fiat’s dominion doth protest too much, wethinks”...]

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice,.com,

• Dutch intelligence services warned that the Dutch part of the North Sea is vulnerable to Russian espionage and sabotage activities.

• Dutch marine vessels have escorted a Russian ship out of Dutch waters in the North Sea after the Russian vessel was detected near an offshore wind farm.

• Intelligence agencies: there are also conceivable threats to energy supply and drinking water supply in the Netherlands.

Vital energy infrastructure in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, including gas pipelines and offshore wind farms, could be vulnerable to a Russian attempt at sabotage, the intelligence services of the Netherlands say.  

Russia is covertly mapping the infrastructure in the area and is carrying out activities that indicate espionage and preparations for disruption and sabotage, the Dutch intelligence agencies MIVD and AIVD said in a report this week.    

Recently, Dutch marine and coast guard vessels have escorted a Russian ship out of Dutch waters in the North Sea after the Russian vessel was detected near an offshore wind farm attempting to map out energy infrastructure, General Jan Swillens, the head of the MIVD military intelligence of the Netherlands, said at a news conference. 

“Russia is mapping how our wind parks in the North Sea function. They are very interested in how they could sabotage the energy infrastructure,” Swillens said, as quoted by Reuters.  

There are also conceivable threats to energy supply and drinking water supply in the Netherlands, the intelligence agencies said in the report.  

Just this weekend, the Dutch government said it would expel several Russian diplomats as Russia continues to bring spies into the Netherlands under cover of diplomacy. 

The Netherlands was not the only European country to warn of increased threats from Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine a year ago. 

Norway, Netherlands’ fellow NATO member, has been on higher alert for potential sabotage since the autumn of 2022 when the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea were sabotaged and drones were detected near energy infrastructure in Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer. 

At the end of September, the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) of Norway urged increased vigilance by all operators and vessel owners on the Norwegian Continental Shelf after companies operating offshore Norway had given warnings or notifications of a number of observations concerning unidentified drones or aircraft close to offshore installations.

A week later, Norway posted soldiers from its Home Guard to protect energy infrastructure as Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, and its Scandinavian neighbors increased security following the sabotage of Nord Stream.

The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said last week in the annual National Threat Assessment report, the first since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “Several countries’ intelligence services operate on Norwegian territory. In PST’s opinion, Russian intelligence services will pose the greatest threat to Norway this year.” 

“It is unlikely that Russia will carry out an act of sabotage on Norwegian territory in 2023. However, acts of sabotage could become a more relevant scenario if Russia’s willingness to escalate the conflict with NATO and the West were to increase,” the Norwegian service said in the report. 

PST expects Russian intelligence services will need new political and military intelligence related to the consequences of NATO’s enlargement in the Nordic region. 

“Further, Norway’s role as an energy supplier to Europe has assumed even greater security policy importance as a result of the war in Ukraine,” PST said in the report.

Norway supplies more than 25% of the natural gas to the rest of Europe and has surpassed Russia as the top supplier after Moscow cut off pipeline supply to many EU countries last year. Norway, not an EU member but a NATO member and close ally to the EU, has become increasingly important for Europe’s energy security as the West turns to supplies from allies to replace Russian volumes. 

“Over the past year, we have seen the emergence of Russian ambitions to exert pressure on European energy security. PST therefore expects that in 2023, Russia will try to gather intelligence about most aspects of Norway’s oil, gas and energy sector,” the Norwegian Police Security Service said.