The Norwegian authorities will join the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia on July 31, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry has reported.

Foreign Minister Borge Brende said that Norway would introduce the same sanctions as the EU. In particular, it will expand the list of persons and entities whose financial assets in the country will be frozen. Visa bans will also be imposed on individuals.

On July 31, the EU included Sberbank, VTB, Rosselkhozbank, VEB and Gazprombank in the sanctions list. EU companies and citizens were banned from buying or selling new shares, bonds and similar financial instruments with a maturity exceeding 90 days. Restrictions were also imposed on supplies of military goods and equipment for extracting arctic, deep-sea shelf and shale oil.

Brende said that Norway's restrictive measures would be a response to the violation by Russia of the UN Charter. He also noted that Moscow had not expressed its readiness to change its behavior towards Ukraine.

"Even after the tragedy on July 17, when a Malaysian plane was downed, Russia, although it changed its behavior, continued to destabilize the situation in the eastern regions of Ukraine," he said.

On August 13, the Foreign Ministry will open a hotline for questions from the business community on the consequences of future sanctions. The ministry noted that it had already held several meetings with entrepreneurs to discuss restrictive measures against Russia.

Norway, being a non-EU member, supported EU sanctions against Russia. On August 7, Norway was included in the list of countries against which restrictive measures have already been introduced by Russia. Moscow banned imports of products from the United States, the EU, Norway, Australia and Canada.