Vardø is a small fishing village on a little island off Norway’s coast in the Barents Sea. A huge military radar facility forms its skyline. In clear weather, if you look east across the water, you can see the shoreline of Russia’s Fishermen Peninsula, a northern appendix of the Kola Peninsula.

Officially, the intelligence service operating the facility has never said the word “Russia” when explaining what the radars in Vardø are looking for.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry, though, has a clear view on the purpose of the Globus radar.

“The station is located just 50 kilometers from the border with Russia, served by Norwegian military intelligence. It’s no secret that the information it receives is transmitted to the United States,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a recent press briefing.

“It seems obvious to me that military preparations near Russian or any other borders cannot be ignored by us or other countries,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said when asked about the new radar currently being installed in Vardø.

“We presume that we will take repose measures to ensure our own security,” she said. A transcript of the press briefing is published on the portal of the Foreign Ministry.