The Russian Cabins: TV2’s OSINT Breakthrough

Gjesvær has survived Vikings, Nazis and birdwatching tourists. Now OSINT suggests the Russians are coming.

“A red mailbox in a Norwegian village bears the name of a Russian man… He has owned this house for over eight years.” – Anne Sofie Rønnfeldt, Kjell Persen, Simen Grimstad Øksnes, Øystein Bogen, Johan Falnes, Malene Indrebø-Langlo, Elin Sørsdahl and Sonja Skeistrand Sunde, Journalists. [Source: TV2]

The Norwegian village of Gjesvær, or Geaissvearra in Northern Sámi, is a traditional fishing town on the northernmost archipelago in the world. Tiny and charming, it’s home to roughly 130 year-round inhabitants.

For tourists, a scan through TripAdvisor recommends the Gjesværstappan natural reserve to the North: a stunning rocky Norwegian Sea archipelago home to a huge seabird colony, including guillemots, sea-eagles and 50,000 pairs of Atlantic puffins. A telescope is apparently useful. For the less adventurous, the little white Gjesvær Chapel is listed as a Norwegian cultural heritage monument, a textbook example of a humble mid-century Langkyrkje, or ‘long church’.

For residents, Gjesvær boasts a post office, a school, a local village shop and a fish processing factory. Historically, no road connections existed across the span of Magerøya island, on which Gjesvær sits. The seafaring locals travelled only by boat – until 1977, when the new 22-mile (35 km) Norwegian County Road 156 connected their home with the rest of the world, via Honningsvåg. This isolation isn’t as surprising if you know Gjesvær is the only settlement in the Finnmark documented since the Viking Age. Norsemen chose to rest here on their way to Bjarmaland, a territory that reached the shores of the Russian coast; Erik ‘Brother-Slayer’ Bloodaxe, Harald Fairhair, Harald Greycloak and Ohthere of Hålogaland all made expeditions here. If you read the Heimskringla saga, the Old Norse poetry cycle concerning Swedish kings, you’ll find mention of ‘Geirsver’. Minus, presumably, the fish processing plant and birding tourists. 

Still, conflict has always left its mark on Gjesvær. After all, the Vikings had taken to the sea to conquer and colonize – or rape and pillage, depending on who you ask. A thousand years later, the settlement’s original houses and buildings would be torched by order of Nazi occupying forces, to avenge “the blood of German soldiers.”. The name ‘Geirsver’ itself comes from ‘Geir’, an Old Norse male forename meaning ‘spear’. For all its beauty, peace and tranquility, military significance might be in this village’s DNA. 

Today, Norway’s North Cape region is central to NATO surveillance. Viking longships have given way to Russian submersibles. Several coastal radar stations have erupted from the snowy banks, tracking Kremlin-backed subs drifting under the icy sea. Soon, the Norwegian Armed Forces plans air warning radars too. Not content with air and sea, the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has warned that Russian citizens are making headway on land too, acquiring properties near strategic areas – like Gjesvær.

“A fairly deserted place is ideal. Then there's no one to follow what's happening… It could be about gathering information. It's about preparing for a possible escalation.” – Karen-Anna Eggen, Researcher, Norwegian Defence University College. [Source: TV2]

In this town is a little yellow cabin. It’s the kind of fisherman’s cottage where reindeer will practically appear at the door, below the Northern Lights and surrounded by the smell of cloudberry heather mingling with the salty sea in the right season. But in front of this cabin stands a red mailbox, with a Russian name: Vladimir Sosnovskiy.

Knowing what we know about Russian purchases in Gjesvær, Norwegian broadcaster TV2 decided to give this new resident a call. When he refused to answer, employed OSINT Industries to find out what “Vladimir Sosnovskiy really does on his trips to Norway.”

‍“– Why did you buy this house in 2015? – I like everything here. I love the cold, I like it better here than in the south. I was probably a Viking in my previous life....” – Interview with Vladimir Sosnovskiy, TV2. [Source: TV2]

Meet TV2, Norway’s Biggest Broadcaster. 

“It was difficult, if not impossible, to conduct investigations of this type as effectively before [OSINT]…” – Kjell Persen, TV2 Reporter. [Source: OSINT Industries]

TV2, Norway’s largest commercial broadcaster, offers a range of programming: sports, entertainment, documentaries, and world-class journalism. For TV2 reporters like Anne Sofie Rønnfeldt, Simen Grimstad Øksnes, Øystein Bogen, Johan Falnes, Malene Indrebø-Langlo, Elin Sørsdahl, Sonja Skeistrand Sunde and Kjell Persen, OSINT Industries access has has become a key tool in their investigative toolbox. As Kjell explained, "OSINT has been an integral part of my research and verification work”, making it possible to follow digital traces like those that exposed Mr Sosnovskiy. 

As in this case, OSINT helps TV2 do what they do best: uncovering the stories Norway, and the world, should be paying attention to. Come military or other crisis – especially following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine – the Norwegian PST’s 2024 Threat Assessment warning about strategically located properties will become internationally seismic. 

Foreseeing this, TV2 has begun a project to map properties registered to foreign citizens in the northernmost regions of Troms, Nordland, Svalbard and Finnmark. This is no small feat. Nearly 2000 manual searches of the Norwegian Mapping Authority's land registers, trawling for the names of private owners, have often proved arduous. However, it’s vital. To investigate the ‘russerhyttene’ (or ‘Russian huts’), TV2 has entered into collaboration with intrepid Russian journalists from the internationally renowned Dossier Center, providing access to Russian databases and documents within their home country for information on individual owners.

In turn, this collaboration lets TV2 offer assistance in the Dossier Center’s greater project of exposing corruption and abuse of power in Russia. Considering the Kremlin system a de-facto criminal organization, the Dossier Center is also building a map: a web of case files exposing corrupt players from high-ranking politicians to regional police – in the hope that one day, future Russian and non-Russian courts can prosecute them for their crimes.

Since 2010, several cabins in Målselv Fjellandsby, near Norway's key northern military base at Bardufoss, have been owned by Russians with strong ties to President Vladimir Putin’s regime. These cabins are alarmingly close to strategic Norwegian and NATO military sites, including Bardufoss Air Station, Army Headquarters, and the National Land Operations Center.

Mapping the ‘russerhyttene’ with OSINT research has exposed several high-profile Russian figures: 

• Igor Morar: Mayor of Murmansk and member of Putin’s United Russia party, Morar joint-owns a cabin. He has publicly supported Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and has appeared at Putin’s military ceremonies beside high-ranking Russian naval officials. He rented his cabin for $460 US profit a night.

• Viktor Saygin: This wealthy politician from Murmansk has military connections, and ranks high in the pro-Kremlin Russian Peace Foundation. Saygin bought land for his daughter’s cabin too, and reportedly financed plots for other Russians. His window overlooks Norway’s pivotal Bardufoss air base. 

• Alexander P. Timofeev: Timofeev expresses a “friendly” view of Norway, although his land was also allegedly financed by Saygin.

This is the journey that brought TV2 to a little yellow cabin in Gjesvær.

The Plumber: A Peaceful Life, or a Strategic Retreat?

“I'm apolitical, politics doesn't mean anything to me… I am already an old man and need peace and quiet… I've been fishing, I've eaten the fish, and now I'm resting. I'm not interested in anything else.” – Interview with Vladimir Sosnovskiy, TV2. [Source: TV2]

Open-source land registry records showed that Vladimir Sosnovskiy had purchased the Gjesvær cabin in 2015. However, as Norwegian law allows foreign buyers to purchase private properties with no fixed background checks, little other information was listed. 

According to the Dossier Center, Sosnovskiy had been employed for many years in the Russian Foreign Ministry at the point of this purchase. Citing Sosnovskiy’s own CV and a loan application to a Russian bank, they were able to confirm a position in the Russian Foreign Ministry from 2002 to 2014 – including work in Strasbourg, and at Russia's Brussels NATO embassy. In fact, documents showed Sosnovskiy receiving a salary from the presidential office in Moscow since 2016 too.

“This is extremely serious… These are not just anyone. These are people with clear connections to the highest levels of Russian politics.”  – Professor Kåre Dahl Martinsen, Department of Defense Studies. [Source: TV2]

When TV2 got hold of Vladimir Sosnovskiy by phone, he claimed to be retired – and out of work for almost a decade. Like his claims that he came to Norway simply out of love for fishing and relaxing in the cold, this statement was somehow hard to believe. So, TV2 delved deeper. 

Further Russian corporate documents suggested another Kremlin connection. After 2016 – post-purchase of the Gjesvær cabin – Sosnovskiy appeared listed on payroll as director of a sanatorium: the Tetkovo Health Resort. 

TV2 called the little yellow cabin again, to raise these discrepancies with its owner. In conversation, Sosnovskiy confirmed he had indeed worked for the Russian Foreign Ministry – but not in a political capacity. Instead, he insisted, he had only been a hired plumber. His primary role: ‘fixing toilets.’

“I have nothing to do with the government… I'm not a bureaucrat. I'm hired labor. I dig in the ground, lay pipes and fix toilets…" – Interview with Vladimir Sosnovskiy, TV2. [Source: TV2]

Fortunately, Sosnovskiy was not the only one digging.

Paid by Putin: A Phone Number with Presidential Ties 

Having found their target, one of TV2’s sources tipped them off to a tool “that could be useful to us”. Namely, OSINT Industries.

The Dossier Center had located a phone number registered to Sosnovskiy; they had used a number to call him at his cabin in Gjesvær. TV2 journalists inputted this number into an OSINT Industries search, and a Yandex result confirmed their suspicions. The number belonged to the Tetkovo Health Resort. But why was this sanitorium so crucial? 

Located in 25 hectares of forested Medveditsa riverside, the Tetkovo Resort is a gem of Russia’s Tver region which claims to have “created all the conditions for natural relaxation, cleansing and healing of the body.” Unfortunately, alongside promising “comfort in every detail”, Tetkovo is owned and operated by the Russian Presidential Office itself. As its English-language website states, it is proud of its political history as the “Wellness Complex… of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation”. 

TV2’s phone number search on OSINT Industries showed other results too. Via our WhatsApp module, an active account was visible for Vladimir Sosnovskiy. Its profile photo was duplicated on his Telegram account. In this picture, Sosnovskiy was posed at his desk – and on his office wall, in pride of place beside a large Russian flag, was a picture of Vladimir Putin. In the corner, right of the flag, was a high-security safe.

For TV2 reporters, Sosnovskiy’s WhatsApp Bio was particularly interesting. It read “на работе” (“At Work”). 

This corroborated that after the 2015 purchase of that little yellow cabin in Gjesvær, Vladimir Sonovskiy was employed “in a director position with a salary from the Russian presidential office.” During the same period, TV2 reported, “he spent a lot of time in Norway, according to the man himself.”

Although it is clear that Sosnovskiy was Kremlin-adjacent, TV2 has no documentation linking him directly to illegal activity in Norway. However, when asked about proof of his role in the Russian Foreign Ministry, he ended the conversation with reporters.

‍“I think this question might not be entirely appropriate. You know, now the wife is here, I have to go get the car. It was nice talking to you. All right.” – Interview with Vladimir Sosnovskiy, TV2. [Source: TV2]

An A-Ha Experience: OSINT Industries As A Turning Point

Using OSINT Industries is, in the words of TV2 reporter Kjell Persen, “an a-ha experience”. Often, an OSINT Industries search is the moment where allegations can be finally backed by concrete proof. TV2’s team chose to collaborate on this case study after our tool played such a pivotal role in their explosive investigation into the Russian cabins; it was, Kjell said, “the right thing to do.” 

OSINT – and our tool – enables and encourages journalists to look in the most unlikely places. What look like isolated fisherman’s cottages in a remote, windswept archipelago could be pieces in a larger geopolitical puzzle, with potential consequences for Europe as grave as the Viking and Nazi conflicts that scarred Gjesvær before. All of NATO’s eyes might soon be on these tiny huts on the ice.

“Well, they're not here to ski or fish in the fjord. No one believes that… The Russians know very well how to exploit the Norwegian system to make these types of purchases. There is clearly no awareness in Norway of what this means” –  Professor Kåre Dahl Martinsen, Department of Defense Studies. [Source: TV2]

In May 2025, Norwegian authorities tightened entry rules for Russian citizens. A joint justice committee at the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) has “adopted a recommendation with several demands to the government regarding restrictions in the property market". They directly referred to TV2's ‘russerhyttene’ cases. 

Meanwhile, TV2 submitted their findings (and Professor Dahl’s consequent criticism) to Norwegian Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl. Mehl emphasized that Norway’s government is working on improving the Security Act, strengthening regulations and the PST to better detect “unwanted activity”.

TV2 also asked Eirik Veum, PST Communications Advisor, whether the PST had acted on Vladimir Sosnovskiy and the cabin in Gjesvær. When asked whether he was familiar with Sosnovskiy before TV2, he refused to answer.

‍“I don't want to answer that.” – Eirik Veum, PST Communications Advisor, to TV2 Reporters. [Source: TV2]

To find out more about TV2’s investigation, visit:

TV2: Russiske private eiendomskjøp i Norge / Russian private property purchases in Norway [Norwegian/Norsk]