This report is based on the master thesis Russia and Environment in the Norwegian Petroleum Debate: A Discourse-Analytical Perspective, and examines how arguments about Russia and the environment are portrayed together in the Norwegian petroleum debate regarding drilling in the Barents Sea. The report examines how advocates of drilling have managed to get wide acceptance in the public sphere for their argument that Norway ‘must drill to help the environment’. Such a statement is only possible if there are certain widely held perceptions in the Norwegian public about ‘Russia and the environment’. In addition to the empirical focus of the report, there is also an attempt to utilize and examine certain theoretical and methodological aspects of discourse analysis. 
 The analysis is based on approximately 1200 articles from the Norwegian newspapers Aftenposten, Nordlys, Dagens Næringsliv and Klassekampen between 1 January 2003 and 4 October 2005. The articles have served as a background for the presentation of the debate itself in addition to functioning as documentation and examples of the two major discourses constructed. These two discourses are then analysed and commented on in light of key elements from both text-oriented and a more socially-oriented discourse analysis.