MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Norway has been hit the worst by anti-Russia sanctions and Moscow’s retaliatory ban on food imports, a communication manager at German-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce told Sputnik.
"Norway has suffered more from EU sanctions [on Russia] than other European countries," Julia Fellinger said.
In the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian crisis, the European Union and several other Western countries imposed economic sanctions on Moscow over its alleged role in the hostilities in Ukraine. Russia retaliated with a food ban in August 2014 and extended it for another year last June.
Norway’s food exports slumped by 11 percent on lost profits from fish sales, Fellinger added. "No other country, except Poland, has lost such a huge export market as Norway because Russia banned imports of Norwegian fish," she explained.
Russia’s struggling economy made Norwegian investment unstable and unprofitable, she went on, stressing that, "Norway is interested in bilateral relations with Russia more than EU countries since we share a northern border."
Fellinger said that the longer the sanctions lasted, the worse the impact on the Norwegian economy would be.
Over the past year, Oslo scaled down political contacts with Moscow and suspended its military cooperation.
