SOCHI, November 25 (Sputnik) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia and Norway have good prospects in trade and expressed hope that the results of the joint work, accomplished in recent years, will not vanish.
"We have excellent prospects in trade and development of the relations [with Norway]. I hope what we have achieved will not be lost. We will move forward," Putin told Norwegian VGTV channel.
According to the Russian President, a lot was achieved when Jens Stoltenberg, who is currently heading NATO, served as Norway's Prime Minister.
"We solved the issues, associated with the use of subsurface resources in the northern seas," the Russian leader added.
Russia's relations with the West deteriorated significantly over the situation in Ukraine. Norway was one of the countries that joined anti-Russia sanctions, imposed over Moscow's alleged meddling in the Ukrainian conflict. The most recent waves of sanctions particularly targeted the country's energy sector, prohibiting the export of goods, services and technologies for deepwater, Arctic and shale oil exploration to Russia.
Russia's Rosneft oil company collaborates with Norway's state-owned energy giant Statoil on projects in the Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as pilot projects for heavy oil in Siberia and shale oil in the Samara region. All those projects and many others are under threat due to Western sanctions.
