Mark rittmayer @markrittmayer - Twitter Profile

By Alla Knyazeva in Kyiv, written 14 days before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Translation: In the photo with Vovan (Putin) is Jens Stoltenberg (current NATO Secretary General and former Prime Minister of Norway) in New York in 2000. In the late 1980s and early 90s, Jens had a “voluntary” connection with the KGB as a convinced communist. But he got angry when they opened a file on him and nicknamed him the pseudonym “agent Steklov”, and refused to cooperate. Interestingly, the story of the failed recruitment had no effect whatsoever on his career. Jens has an interesting family. His father, Thorvald Stoltenberg, was the leader of Norway’s ruling Labour Party, served in parliament, and several times held ministerial posts — from Minister of Defence to Foreign Minister. His mother Karin also worked in the government — she headed foreign trade and later oversaw the Ministry of Social Policy. Another member of the clan was Minister Johan Holst, who headed the military department, the police, and foreign policy. Jens’s sister Camilla is Director General of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. His younger sister Nini, a well-known TV presenter, died of a heroin overdose. The secret of the clan’s power is linked to their mother Karin and her sister Marianne; they are representatives of the country’s richest family, the Heibergs — bankers and industrialists. The Heiberg surname became famous during the Second World War, when a regime loyal to the Third Reich under Quisling was established in Norway. Aksel Heiberg Stang was one of Quisling’s closest advisors. Thanks to him, all the factories, mines, and ore deposits owned by members of the clan were supplied with free labour — prisoners from concentration camps. Norwegian mines operated in three shifts during the war, supplying the Wehrmacht with iron ore, copper, nickel, and non-ferrous metals. Apparently tormented by this fact, Jens and his sister Camilla turned to ultra-left convictions and became members of the ultra-left organisation “Red Youth”. Jens became a journalist and drew attention with his articles calling on the Norwegian authorities to withdraw from NATO, which attracted the attention of the KGB as a potential agent. In conversations with the KGB resident, Jens was dissatisfied with Gorbachev’s perestroika and believed that the USSR, as a guiding beacon for the world, should not yield to the “world clique of capitalists” who dream of reviving fascism. He was ready to work for the USSR on a voluntary basis, without any documentation of cooperation and without payment. Agent Steklov was exposed in 1991 by senior KGB operative Major Mikhail Butkov in exchange for asylum in London. After Butkov’s defection, eight Soviet diplomats were expelled from Norway. Among them was the KGB resident and his assistant — the cultural attaché of the embassy Boris Kirillov (Jens Stoltenberg’s recruiter). This whole story did not harm Stoltenberg’s meteoric career in any way. They believed him when he said he did not know he was communicating with a KGB agent and, in any case, had not managed to pass on any important information. And some time later, in the 90s, Stoltenberg made a dizzying career: leader of the Norwegian Labour Party, member of parliament, Minister of Trade and Energy, Minister of Finance. In his 2016 book “My Story”, J. Stoltenberg, among other things, recounted how he maintained close contacts with employees of the Soviet embassy in Norway from the late 1970s. By his own admission, he regularly ate shrimp sandwiches and discussed politics with Soviet intelligence officers. According to him, the dangerous connection ended in 1990, when the Norwegian police security service instructed him to meet with Kirillov regarding his KGB file and to find out whether he intended to “abandon ship”. The initiator of his nomination for the post of NATO Secretary General was Angela Merkel, who secured the support of the USA and Britain, and then other members of the alliance.