The mystery of why a beluga whale, which many suspected to be a Russian spy, appeared off the coast of Norway five years ago may have finally been solved.
Olga Shpak, an expert on beluga whales, believes that Hvaldimir, as the locals called him, really belonged to the Russian army and escaped from a naval base in the Arctic Circle.
However, he does not believe that he was a spy, but that he was trained to guard a military base.
Russia refuses to confirm or deny that the beluga whale was trained by its military.
"For me, it's 100 percent (certain)," says Shpak, who worked in Russia on marine mammal research from the 1990s until returning to her native Ukraine in 2022.
Her account, based on conversations with friends and former colleagues in Russia, appears in a BBC documentary Secrets of the spy whale.
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How the whale became Hvaldimir
The mysterious whale first attracted attention five years ago, when it approached fishermen off the northern coast of Norway.
"He started rubbing against the boat," says Joar Hesten, one of the fishermen.
"I've heard of animals in distress who instinctively knew they needed people's help. I thought this was one smart whale.”
That meeting was unusual for several reasons.
First, the beluga whale was unusually tame, and they are rarely seen in that area, and he was wearing a belt with a camera mount that said: "St. Petersburg Equipment".
The fishermen took off his equipment and the whale swam to the nearby port of Hammerfest, where he lived for several months, often socializing with humans.
"It was obvious that he was conditioned to pay attention to anything that looked like a threat, because he did it every time," says Eve Jourdain of the Norwegian Whale Conservation Organization.
"But we don't know what institution he was in and what he was specifically trained for."
Fascinated by the story of the whale, Norway made an effort to track and feed the belug whale.
The name he received - Hvaldimir - is a combination of the word 'hval', which means whale in Norwegian, and the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Secrets of the 'spy whale'
Olga Shpak's sources in Russia, whom she did not want to name for their safety, say that Hvaldimir was immediately identified there as one of their whales.
"A message came through the chain of veterinarians and trainers that they were missing Andruha the whale," she says.
Andruha, that is Hvaldimir, was caught for the first time in 2013 in the Sea of Okhotsk in the far east of Russia, he adds.
A year later, it was transferred from a facility owned by a dolphinarium in St. Petersburg to a military program in the Russian Arctic.
"When they started working there in open waters, trusting the animal (that it would not escape), I believe that the whale simply gave up on them," says Špak.
"I heard from the guys from the dolphinarium that Andruha was smart, a good choice for training, but he was like a hooligan, so they weren't surprised that he went where he wanted."
Satellite images near the Russian naval base in Murmansk show where Hvaldimir/Andruha's old home could have been.
Beluga whales can also be seen in the photos of the military base.
"The location of beluga whales, very close to submarines and surface vessels, tells us that they are actually part of the protection system," says Thomas Nielsen of the Norwegian newspaper Barents Observer.
Russia has never spoken out about claims that Hvaldimir/Andruha was trained by its military, even though it has a long history of training marine mammals for military purposes.
"If we were to use this animal for spying, do you really think we would attach a cell phone number with the message 'Please call this number,'" Russian colonel Viktor Baranets said in 2019.
A sad ending
Unfortunately, the incredible story of Hvaldimir/Andruha does not have a happy ending.
He spent several years along the Norwegian coast, and in May 2023 he was also spotted near Sweden.
However, on September 1, 2024, his body was found floating in the sea, near the town of Risavik, on the southwest coast of Norway.
Could it be that he was styled by the long arm of Putin's Russia? Apparently not.
Although some activists have claimed that the whale was shot, Norwegian police reject this, stating that there is no indication that the beluga's death was caused by human activity.
The autopsy showed that Hvaldimir/Andruha died after a stick stuck in his mouth.
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