A 50-year-old Russian man has been detained in Arctic Norway with two drones and is suspected of flying the unmanned aerial vehicles somewhere in the country, according to police.
Key points:
- A man was found with two drones and several electronic storage devices while trying to cross back into Russia
- Authorities say he is suspected of breaching sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine
- Security has been heightened around key energy, internet and power infrastructure after explosions recently ruptured two natural gas pipelines
Numerous drone sightings have been reported near Norwegian offshore oil and gas platforms in recent weeks.
The Russian citizen, who was not identified, was returning to Russia when he was detained by authorities on Tuesday.
On Friday, the suspect — who had confessed to flying a drone in Norway — was ordered to be held in custody for two weeks.
Customs officers found two drones and several electronic storage devices in his luggage during a routine check at the Storskog border crossing, the sole crossing point between NATO-member Norway and Russia, prosecutor Anja Mikkelsen Indbjør said in a statement.
Norway’s Arctic border with Russia is 198-kilometres long.
The detained man is suspected of breaching sanctions that came into force after Russia went to war against Ukraine, Ms Mikkelsen Indbjør said.
Under Norwegian law, it is prohibited for aircraft operated by Russian companies or citizens “to land on, take off from or fly over Norwegian territory”.
Norway is not a member of the European Union but mirrors its moves.
‘We have an intelligence threat against us’
The man told the Indre and Oestre Finnmark District Court that he had been in Norway since August and had flown drones throughout the country, Norway’s VG newspaper reports.
Ms Mikkelsen Indbjør said the seized material — which according to VG included 4 terabytes of stored images and files, with parts of them encrypted — “will be examined to see the scope and content of the flying that took place over Norwegian territory”.
She said the probe was “still at an early phase, and for the sake of the investigation, no further information can be given about what kind of equipment has been seized or what else has happened”.
“It is also too early to assess what will happen next in the case,” she said.
Norwegian Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said it was “too early to draw conclusions”.
“It is known that we have an intelligence threat against us, which has been reinforced by what is happening in Europe,” Ms Enger Mehl told public broadcaster NRK.
There is heightened security around key energy, internet and power infrastructure after last month’s underwater explosions that ruptured two natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that were built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.
Those blasts and ruptures happened in international waters off both Sweden and Denmark, but within the countries’ exclusive economic zone.
The damaged Nord Stream pipelines discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.
Police investigate drone sighting at gas plant
Meanwhile, on Friday, local time, Norwegian police investigated reports of a drone that was seen flying over the Kaarstoe gas-processing plant in the country’s south-west, in potential violation of security protocols, newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reported.
The Norwegian military home guard has been posted at Kaarstoe and other major energy export facilities since authorities boosted security at Norwegian oil and gas installations.
Even before the Nord Stream incidents, Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) had warned energy companies to be vigilant for unidentified drones.
On Thursday, police responded to a threat made by telephone against the Nyhamna gas plant.
That plant, along with Kaarstoe and a handful of other Norwegian sites, rank among Europe’s largest energy export facilities.
Norway is now Europe’s largest gas supplier after a sharp reduction in flows from Russia.
Reuters/AP/ABC