Russian Beluga-Spy Khvaldimir Could Be Shot To Kill

His body was found off the coast of Norway.

Animal welfare groups say a beluga whale nicknamed Khvaldimir, found dead off the coast of Norway on Sunday, was likely shot dead by a firearm. They appealed to the Norwegian police with a demand to start an investigation, Radio Liberty reports.

The body of the whale was found on September 1 in the sea near Stavanger. Two days earlier, environmental organizations reported that they had seen Khvaldimir fresh and healthy. The corpse was transported to the Norwegian Institute of Veterinary Medicine for autopsy and cause of death examination. According to the clinic, the procedure can take up to three weeks. However, the head of the One Whale Cetacean Conservation Society, Regina Crosby Haug, said that she saw numerous bullet wounds on Khvaldimir's body.

In a statement to the police, which was filed by two animal protection societies – One Whale and Noah – it is indicated that the presence of bullet wounds was confirmed by several veterinarians, biologists and ballistics specialists.

“I have worked with Khvaldimir for the last five years and knew it very well. When I saw it corpse, I immediately realized that it had been killed by gunshots. I even saw a bullet stuck in his body. This kind, gentle animal was senselessly killed. We will seek justice for Khvaldimir,” Haug wrote.

Employees of another group that followed the whale, Marine Mind, suggest not to make hasty statements and say that the injuries on the corpse could have been inflicted, for example, by birds.

The beluga whale was first spotted in Norwegian territorial waters in 2019. It had a harness with mounts for video cameras and the inscription "Equipment St. Petersburg". Zoologists suggested that the whale was trained for espionage at one of the Russian military bases and could escape from there or be released "on a mission", but lose video cameras along the way. The whale was not afraid of people and gained great popularity both among local residents and in the press and social media. He was given the nickname Khvaldimir – from the Norwegian word hval (whale) and the name Putin.

In the 1980s, the Soviet army was developing a program to train dolphins to detect underwater mines. This program was closed in the 1990s. In 2017, the Russian state TV channel Zvezda reported on a program to train beluga whales, seals and dolphins for military use.

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