Second Russian arrested with drone in Norway: photos of an airport near Russian border found in his luggage

Second Russian arrested with drone in Norway: photos of an airport near Russian border found in his luggage

According to officials, the 51-year-old man, who also had a camera and whose name was not disclosed, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of flying a drone over the Scandinavian country, which he confessed to.

Police in the northern city of Tromso said in a statement that they “seized a large amount of photographic equipment, including a cache of drones and memory cards”.

He said the confiscated material included photographs of an airport in Kirkenes in the far north, farther from the border with Russia, and Bell helicopters of the Norwegian military.

Norway has been on high alert after a mysterious unmanned plane was spotted near an offshore oil and gas rig.

As the invasion of Ukraine led to a dramatic decline in Russian energy supplies, that state overtook Russia as the main natural gas supplier to Western Europe.

Norway, after leaks were reported last month on two Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russian territory to Germany across the Baltic Sea, widely believed to be the result of sabotage, and after drones were detected around its energy installations. Security has been increased.

Like many other Western countries, it has banned Russians from flying over its soil because of a military offensive in Ukraine.

Failure to comply with this prohibition is punishable by a prison sentence of three years.

On Friday, Norwegian police announced 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, Vitaly Raustanov, who was returning home by car, was arrested at the Storskog border post, the only transit point between Norway and Russia.

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He admitted to flying the drone “all over the country”, but denied any wrongdoing. He was taken on two-week remand 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.

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