Norway will be the last European nation that borders Russia to ban Russian-registered vehicles amid an uproar over an EU directive on import restrictions.
Over the past week, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland have implemented bans on passenger vehicles with Russian license plates.
“Norway will introduce restrictions on importing and using Russian-registered cars in Norway,” Eivind Vad Petersson, Norway’s Foreign Ministry state secretary, said Tuesday.
“We’re now looking at how this will be done and will come back quickly with effective measures,” Petersson was quoted as saying by the expat news website The Local.
Norway, unlike the Baltic and Northern European countries that enforced their own Russian car bans, is not a member of the European Union.
Still, Oslo has joined several EU sanctions packages against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The entry bans were issued after the European Commission clarified that existing regulations prohibit the import or transfer of goods originating in Russia.
Russian opposition activists argued that the restrictions hurt political dissidents and Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia alongside ordinary Russian citizens.
