A Norwegian TV channel says it will air a TV drama depicting a Russian invasion of Norway after environmentalists seize power and freeze the nation’s oil and gas industry. TV2 says the production company has already sold Occupied – a 10-episode, £7m drama by thriller writer Jo Nesbø – to European stations.

Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, the Russian ambassador in Oslo, told Russia’s Tass news agency that “Russia, regrettably, has the role of the aggressor. In the worst traditions of the cold war, [this show] decided to scare Norwegian viewers with a nonexistent threat from the east,” he said. TV2 drama chief Christopher Haug said he was “surprised by the reaction”. “It is obviously a fiction, everyone can see that,” he said, adding that the Russian embassy had been told about the series “at an early stage, three years ago, I believe”.

“(It’s) an engaging character drama about people put under great pressure,” Haug added, stressing it “doesn’t aim to reflect the current geopolitical situation in a realistic way.”