"Pealtnägija" reported the pair, 22-year-old Matthias Rikka and his Ukrainian friend Lev, spent several months in prison in Latvia on suspicion of espionage against the state: The duo don't just note down loco numbers but also take plenty of good quality photos, some of which they exhibit, and have even used a drone.

Given the current climate of hybrid warfare, all fingers pointed towards one particular country, leading to suspicions that Matthias and Lev were spying for Russia. This assumption was largely based on the fact that railway lines often run close to sensitive locations and critical infrastructure, and are themselves a type of critical infrastructure. As it happened, this was not the case, as "Pealtnägija" recounted.

Matthias previously worked in a sawmill, but lost his job as a result of being incarcerated. The sentence had a lasting effect on him, as it has hindered him from finding a new job since being released in April, he said. Additionally, he had also attracted the attention of the local Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) when photographing near an electricity substation at the time the desynchronization from the Russian grid was going ahead. He and Lev were also detained that time.

In any case, Matthias said he was ready to speak to "Pealtnägija." He grew up in Türi, Järva County, and has a grandmother who works on the railways, with whom he had spent time since childhood. As a teenager, trainspotting, which was just starting to become popular in Estonia, turned into a passionate hobby.

"It's almost like fishing, you go to the railway line the way a fisherman goes to the river. You wait for something to bite," he explained about his hobby.

Trainspotting has grown as a pursuit in recent years

Transport expert Raivo Vare said there were trainspotters in Estonia 20 years ago when he worked for Estonian Railways (Eesti Raudtee). The number of hobbyists today is around a couple of dozen, "Pealtnägija" reported, in Estonia, with much larger numbers in the U.K. and elsewhere in the world, of course.

While Matthias dates the beginning of his hobby from 2018, Lev, who lived in Ukraine, also caught the bug, though a little later. "For me it was a very meditative and interesting process. But later it turned into a desire to capture moments – memories, interesting trains, some very old, rare machines," said Lev.

The goal is not simply to photograph all trains, but to spot rarer locomotives or unusual combinations. Both Matthias' and Lev's photo portfolios are at times very striking; some shots would probably make a professional photographer jealous.

Matthias noted that over the years there have been situations where a trainspotter had climbed into a hazardous spot, or who the PPA had checked up on. However, as of now, in Estonia, most of the regular faces are already familiar to the local locomotive drivers, who sound the train's whistle in greeting when passing by, or even drop hints if something interesting is coming down the line.

As both Matthias' and Lev's galleries demonstrate, they have traveled quite a bit because of the hobby. Lev's journey was particularly complicated — as a Ukrainian, he had to flee his home country when the full-scale Russian invasion began in February 2022.

He ended up in Ireland, and has many photos from that country's rail network as well. After meeting Matthias online, Lev visited Estonia for the first time in 2023.

The two acquaintances went on trainspotting and photographing missions together here, and Lev then traveled to Latvia, as seen in his public photo gallery. It was there that his activities attracted brief attention from the authorities.

Pair took photos while desynchronization work in progress

"In Latvia, in 2023, when I was at the station and photographing the railway directly in the station, around three o'clock in the morning, a police patrol drove by and noticed me. Questions followed, but everything ended amicably. They said that in Latvia generally it was not a good idea to take photographs in stations, but they recommended going to the 'pergon' – that's the stretch of track between stations – where you can freely take pictures," he recalled.

A road trip in Estonia also wasn't without incident. On February 12 – at the same time as Estonia's power grid was being desynchronized with the Russian grid – they were photographing a train near Rakvere, which happened to be near related critical infrastructure.

"We didn't know that when looking toward Tapa, on the left over the forest, there was some kind of critical infrastructure: A substation. But the defense forces were guarding it, and thought we were some kind of suspicious element, so they called the police on us, and the police took us to the station, questioned us a bit, and also took our equipment for inspection," Matthias said.

Tapa is home to a major rail junction, as well as the NATO base which houses British, French and other troops.

After that incident, the pair continued their journey in South Estonia and on into Latvia. They used Matthias' car and stayed overnight in hostels, even spending a night in the vehicle once. Unlike Estonia, in Latvia, the rules for photographing trains and railways are much stricter, as Lev had already sampled.

The guys knew about the Latvian restrictions, but given that up to then all trainspotters had gotten off with at worst a warning, they continued filming and photographing. Even though freight traffic in the direction of Russia had dropped significantly after the invasion, it had not completely halted. On February 24, they found themselves chasing a rare locomotive that was en route to Rezekne, in eastern Latvia, and onward to Russia.

The first time they were noticed was that morning, in Liepaja, in the west of the country, when they were using a drone.

Latvia's secret police found things suspicious

Latvian police later detained the duo in the city of Jelgava. According to Latvia's security police, the VDD, a number of devices were found with the detained foreign nationals: Five mobile phones, four drones, two cameras, a USB device, and one trail camera, all of which created a highly suspicious impression.

This was no laughing matter for the pair. Among the increasingly frequent hybrid attacks linked to Russia have been several disruptions to rail traffic and damage to infrastructure in Europe. Vare confirmed that there is much scope for sabotage, and that the potential for damage, for instance to tank cars, a type of rolling stock which carries gas or oil, is not insignificant.

A Latvian court duly placed Matthias and Lev under arrest, on suspicion of espionage, and the young men were incarcerated in Riga central prison for the duration of the preliminary investigation.

The young men spent a total of six weeks behind bars and were only released on April 8. The case was concluded three months later...

In response to "Pealtnägija's" request for comment, the VDD said that the investigation had not found that "the unauthorized photographing and filming of critical infrastructure took place on the orders of Russian intelligence and special services."

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