This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Four Russian citizens — three men and one woman — were arrested last week and placed in custody in Norway after they were seen taking photographs of objects that are subject to a ban on photography, Norwegian police said on October 17, without specifying what they had photographed.
Police found “photographic equipment and relatively extensive image material” in their possession when their car was stopped on October 11.
The four individuals were not identified. Police said they came to Norway from Finland, and claimed they were tourists.
Norwegian authorities said they was no immediate link to two other cases of Russians detained elsewhere in the Nordic NATO member after police found them in possession of drones.
In recent weeks, a number of drone sightings have been reported near Norwegian offshore oil and gas platforms.
Police declined to give further details “due to the nature of the case.”
Norway has posted soldiers to help guard major onshore oil and gas processing plants, its military said on October 3, as part of efforts to beef up security amid suspicion that sabotage caused last month’s leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines that were built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.
The damaged pipelines discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.
