Norway announced on Saturday that it had arrested a Russian citizen with a drone after he was seen taking photos of an airport in the far north of its territory, the second such case this week.
The 51-year-old man, who was also in possession of a camera and whose name has not been released, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of flying a drone over the Scandinavian country, to which he confessed, according to authorities.
Police in the northern city of Tromso said in a statement that they “seized a large amount of photographic equipment, including a drone and a cache of memory cards.”
The material seized included photographs of an airport in Kirkenes, in the Far North, not far from the Russian border, and Norwegian Army Bell helicopters, he said.
Norway has been on high alert since mysterious drones were spotted near offshore oil and gas platforms.
As the invasion of Ukraine led to a dramatic drop in Russian energy supplies, that kingdom overtook Russia as Western Europe’s leading supplier of natural gas.
Norway bans Russians from flying over its soil
Following leaks reported last month at the two Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russian territory to Germany via the Baltic Sea, believed to be the result of sabotage and drone detection, Norway has tightened security around its power installations.
Like other Western nations, it has banned Russians from flying over its soil due to the military offensive in Ukraine. Failure to comply with this prohibition is punishable by a three-year prison sentence.
On Friday, Norwegian police announced that they had arrested another Russian crossing the border in the far north on Tuesday, in possession of two drones and a series of photos and videos.
This 50-year-old man, Vitali Roustanov, who was returning home by car, was arrested at the Storskog border post, the only transit point between Norway and Russia.
He admitted to flying drones “all over the country” but denied committing any crime. He was taken into custody for two weeks on Friday. He had two Russian passports and one Israeli passport.
Present in Norway since August, it hid four terabytes of partially encrypted photos and videos.
Source: BFM TV
