Hvaldimir was a beluga suspected of having worked as a Russian spy. He appeared off Norway in 2019 wearing a purpose-built camera harness marked “Equipment St. Petersburg.” He followed boats, retrieved objects and responded to human gestures, leading Norwegian authorities to believe he had escaped from a Russian military training programme. His name combines hval, Norwegian for whale, with Vladimir Putin. No espionage was ever proven, and Russia never acknowledged employing him.
Hvaldimir
