In 2014, the whale was allegedly moved from a facility owned by a dolphinarium in St. Petersburg to an Arctic military program, where his trainers and vets remained in contact.

According to Dr Shpak, Andruha/Hvaldimir had first been captured in 2013 in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia's Far East. A year later it was moved from a facility owned by a dolphinarium in St Petersburg to the military programme in the Russian Arctic, where his trainers and vets remained in contact.

The beluga dubbed the "spy whale," was wearing a harness with a small camera and a buckle marked with "Equipment St Petersburg."

Hvaldimir, the beluga whale found with a Russian harness in 2019, may have been trained as a guard whale rather than a spy, according to a new BBC documentary. Experts suggest he was taught to detect intruders,

Hvaldimir the tame beluga whale was indeed a Russian spy whale, but it escaped because it was a "hooligan." Sadly Hvaldimir died earlier this year. The post Hvaldimir Was a Runaway ‘Spy Whale’, Says Marine Scientst first appeared on The Inertia.

The Hvaldimir whale - which was spotted off the coast of Norway in 2019 - was originally thought to have been a Russian spy and the claims may have been right.