A court in Norway released from custody the Russian Andrei Yakunin, the son of the former head of Russian Railways and a member of the Ozero cooperative, Vladimir Yakunin. According to the BBC Russian Service, citing the NRK television company, the decision to release was made by the Court of Appeal.
The court agreed with the defense that there was no criminal offense, Yakunin's lawyer told NRK.
Yakunin Jr. was detained on October 17 and was in court in Tromso. He was taken into custody for two weeks.
Andrey Yakunin has British and Russian citizenship, and business in Italy, he is 47 years old. In the summer, he gave an interview in which he stated that he opposed the war and did not vote for Putin.
It was reported that he was arrested for flying a drone in the north of Norway, in Hammerfest, where an liquefied natural gas processing plant is located. The drone was launched from a sailing yacht under the British flag Firebird. Norwegian law prohibits Russians from launching drones in the country's airspace.
This is the fourth time in recent history that drones have been illegally launched or photographed at secret sites in northern Norway. Earlier, six Russians had already been arrested. Drone launches have closed two Norwegian airports.
Earlier, The Insider wrote about how Vladimir Yakunin, having headed Russian Railways, became the holder of the state-owned company's "common fund", which was collected through kickbacks for government contracts and taken offshore through the "Moldovan laundry". The total damage to the Russian budget from this cut amounted to more than $20 billion.