Norway’s government said Thursday that it was expelling 15 Russian diplomats from the country, saying they were suspected of spying while working at the Russian Embassy in Oslo.

Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said the move was “an important measure to counter and reduce the scope of Russian intelligence activities in Norway, and thereby secure our national interests.”

[Russia is threatening to expel a similar number of Norway’s diplomats, which is de rigueur but also ultimately isolating for Moscow. They’re cutting off their noses to spite Putin’s face in Europe and it will take decades to repair the damage. And all they have to show for it so far is the territory they controlled before the invasion and a hundred thousand or so Russian corpses. — Ed]