Hvaldimir was a male beluga whale that fishermen near Hammerfest in northern Norway noticed in April 2019 wearing a camera harness. After being freed from the harness, he remained in the area and appeared used to humans. Speculation that he had been trained by Russia as a spy whale led to him being dubbed Hvaldimir, a portmanteau of Norwegian hval (whale) and "Vladimir", for Russian President Vladimir Putin. By 2023, Hvaldimir's range appeared to have expanded to include areas of the south-western coastline of Sweden. On 31 August 2024, Hvaldimir was found dead in the bay of Risavika, close to Stavanger in Norway. Activist groups claimed he died from gunfire, but the following necropsy confirmed that was not the case.