🎙️Statement by the Embassy of Russia in Norway regarding an article in the «Aftenposten» newspaper (10 August 2026) In response to the article ‘Hun er Russlands rikeste kvinne. Nå brenner forretningsimperiet hennes’, published on 8 August 2026, we would like to draw attention to the wording in the article’s subheading: ‘væpnede tsjetsjenske banditter’ (‘armed Chechen bandits’). It is telling that the body of the article itself uses a more neutral phrase – ‘armed Chechen men’. In other words, the editorial team itself apparently recognised the difference between these two terms, but retained the more inflammatory and negatively charged version specifically in the summary – the section read by the greatest number of people and which forms the first impression of the article. Crime has no nationality. Around 200 nationalities and ethnic groups live in Russia, and linking the criminal behaviour of a specific group of individuals to their ethnic background casts a shadow over the entire people, not just those involved in the conflict. We would also like to point out that Norway is home to a Chechen diaspora numbering many thousands — people, many of whom have long since become part of Norwegian society. A phrase such as ‘tsjetsjenske banditter’ in the headline of a major Norwegian newspaper is read and perceived by this audience as a label applied to the entire people by name, rather than on the basis of actual involvement in a specific incident. One would like to believe that the editorial team, which values the publication’s reputation, did not set out to deliberately offend this group of readers, but the outcome remains the same. We would also like to highlight a factual asymmetry which, in my view, is worth bearing in mind. The article’s subject, Tatyana Kim, is an ethnic Korean born in Grozny, then the capital of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Not a word is said about this in the article, although it is a notable and, on a human level, interesting detail of her biography. It appears that ethnic background is mentioned only in relation to armed individuals, whilst the main protagonist’s own origins – which are, in fact, closely linked to Chechnya – remain unmentioned. Such selectivity in the use of ethnic markers, even if unintentional, creates a one-sided impression for the reader. We would suggest that the editorial team consider clarifying the wording in the subheading and, in future publications on this topic, refrain from using negatively connoted language relating to ethnic background.