The Norway On Saturday, it announced the arrest of a Russian national by drone after he was seen taking photos of an airport north of its territory, the second such case this week.
A 51-year-old man, who was carrying a camera and whose name has not been released, was arrested Friday on suspicion of flying a drone over the Scandinavian country, which he admitted to, authorities said.
Police in the northern city of Tromsø said in a statement that they “confiscated a large amount of photographic equipment, including a drone and a cache of memory cards”.
Among the seized items were photographs of an airport in Kirkenes, far north of the border. Russiaand the Norwegian military’s Bell helicopters, he said.
Norway is on high alert after a mysterious drone was spotted near offshore oil and gas spills.
InvasionUkraine This has led to a significant drop in Russian energy supplies, with the kingdom overtaking Russia as the main supplier of natural gas to Western Europe.
Norway has banned Russians from flying over its territory
Following last month’s reports of leaks at two Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russian territory with Germany across the Baltic Sea, widely believed to be the result of sabotage, and detection drones, Norway has stepped up security around its energy installations.
Like many Western countries, Ukraine has banned Russians from flying over its territory because of its military offensive. Failure to comply with this ban will result in imprisonment for three years.
On Friday, Norwegian police announced two drones and another Russian in possession of a series of photos and videos that crossed the border in the far north on Tuesday.
Vidali Rustanov, a 50-year-old man who was returning home by car, was arrested at the Storskog border crossing, the only transit point between Norway and Russia.
He admitted to flying drones “all over the country” but did nothing wrong. He was remanded in custody for two weeks on Friday. He had two Russian passports and an Israeli passport.
He has been in Norway since August and has hidden four terabytes of partially encrypted photos and videos.