Four Russians – three men and one woman – were arrested in Norway in the commune of Mosjøen on suspicion of illegal surveillance. This was reported by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
According to the publication, on October 11, the detainees photographed military installations in the district of Nordland. They arrived at the shooting location in a car with Russian license plates and were stopped on a tip from locals. After the arrest, a search was carried out in the car, as a result of which a large amount of photographic equipment and photographic materials were found.
The court decided to detain the Russians for seven days. Now the investigation will study the photographs found from them to find out if there are objects on them that are forbidden to be photographed.
All four deny the charges imputed to them. They claim that they came to Norway as tourists. The lawyer of the detained woman assures that she was filming not military installations, but the northern lights.
This is not the first detention of Russians in Norway. On October 11, Vitaly Rustanovich was detained at the Storskog border checkpoint. His photographic equipment and two drones were confiscated. On October 14, another Russian with a drone was detained at Tromsø airport. A military helicopter was found in his photographs.
According to the sanctions law, Russians cannot use drones in Norway. Both men were arrested for two weeks.