Norway likely won’t proceed with spying trial for a Russian citizen who was part of Russia-US swap

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway is unlikely to go ahead with the trial of a Russian citizen detained in the Scandinavian country in 2022 accused of espionage and who was part of a huge multinational prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States last week, a senior prosecutor said Friday.

The trial against Mikhail Mikushin was scheduled for September, but he later became part of the Largest civilian prisoner exchange between East and West in post-Soviet history.

The agreement allowed for the release of two dozen people, including Mikushin. Moscow frees journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelanalong with dissidents like Vladimir Kara-Murza as part of the exchange.

For Mikushin’s espionage trial to proceed in Norway, he would have to be tried in absentia.

“No charges will be brought against him,” prosecutor Frederik G. Ranke of the national prosecutor’s office told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Friday, adding that prosecuting Mikushin was no longer in the public interest because he is no longer in the country.

Ranke’s statement is significant, although formally it is up to the director of public prosecutions (a rank higher than the top prosecutor) to bring charges and Norway’s highest judicial authority is likely to follow that suggestion.

Mikushin entered Norway in late 2021, saying he was a Brazilian citizen named José Assis Giammaria. he was arrested and finally revealed his real name to Norway’s internal security agency, PST, which maintained that he posed a threat to the country’s national interests.

Until his arrest, Mikushin worked as a professor at Norway’s Arctic University in Tromsoe, and researched northern regions and hybrid threats. Norway’s border with Russia is 198 kilometers (123 mi) long. The university later said that no data had been stolen or any information extracted from it.

Mikushin is presumed to be somewhere in Russia after the exchange. Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted the Russian prisoners who were released as part of the exchange after they arrived at Moscow airport on August 1.