A celebrity whale suspected of being a Russian spy was gunned down in cold blood after deserting “Mad Vlad” Vladimir Putin ’s armed forced, animal rights groups have claimed.
Tragic Hvaldimir was killed by “gunshot wounds” after defecting to Norway, according to a police report filed by two conservation groups. They shared grisly photos appearing to show streaks of blood and holes in the Beluga’s lifeless body in the harbour of Stavanger, Norway.
The groups, OneWhale and NOAH, said there was “compelling evidence suggesting that Hvaldimir’s death was caused by intentional human-inflicted injury”. And it sparked a frenzy, with experts suggesting the trigger-happy Russkie despot may have been behind a revenge assassination on the gentle creature.
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Retired US admiral James Stavridis said yesterday: “I TOLD you Putin had Hvladimir whacked.” Stavridis earlier posted: “There are no depths that Putin won’t plunge – to go after defectors from Mother Russia.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Regina Haug, founder of OneWhale, claimed to have seen a bullet wound, adding it will “pursue justice for Hvaldimir”.
She wrote on Instagram: “I have been with Hvaldimir for the past five years and know him very well. When I saw his body, I immediately knew he had been killed by gunshots. I even saw a bullet lodged in his body.”
When it was originally found, the mammal was seen with a GoPro camera attached to a harness that read “Equipment of St Petersburg”. That sparked Mad Vlad sea spy claims.
(Image: NTB Scanpix/Norwegian Directorat)
But Hvaldimir was taken in by the Norwegians and experts were slowly working towards granting the creature a new life in the wild waters.
Officials have insisted a formal death assessment from an autopsy could take up to three weeks. Rumours have swirled around the cause of death since the whale passed away last weekend.
TV comedy writer David Mandel wrote on X: “Russian spy whale accidentally fell out of window and drowned.”
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
But Marine Mind, the group that discovered the body, said there was “nothing to immediately reveal the cause of death”. Its director Sebastian Strand said: “We saw markings but it’s too early to say what the cause of death was.”
With an estimated age of 15 to 20, Hvaldimir was young for a beluga whale which can live to between 40 and 60.
It first appeared off the coast in Norway’s far-northern Finnmark region in 2019. The creature became known locally as Hvaldimir, a pun on the Norwegian word for whale “hval” and Vladimir Putin’s first name.