The case of the “spy whale” that arrived in Norway in 2019 wearing a harness that identified it as “St. Petersburg equipment” and contained support for a camera, has perhaps found a solution. According to the hypothesis of Ukrainian scientist Olga Shpak reported by the BBC, the cetacean belonging to the beluga species could have escaped from a Russian naval base located in the Arctic Circle. Probably, explains the expert, he had been trained to guard the base and from there he then escaped towards the south. Since the case was raised, Russia has never confirmed or denied that the whale had anything to do with its military.
Shpak studied marine mammals in Russia from the 1990s until her return to her native Ukraine in 2022, and in a documentary the BBC will broadcast tonight she says she is 100% certain that the whale was trained by the military, even though she doesn’t believe that it was done for espionage purposes. Russia has a tradition of training cetaceans for military purposes. Since arriving in Norway five years ago, the whale has been monitored and fed and given the name Hvaldimir, a cross between the Norwegian word for whale, hval, and the name of the Russian president.