Norwegian police have arrested ex-Wagner fighter Andrei Medvedev. The former soldier illegally crossed the border from Russia to Norway in January and applied for political asylum there.
The Russian achieved international fame with his spectacular escape and public criticism of the infamous Wagner group. Now Reuters news agency reports, citing Medvedev’s lawyer Brynjulf Risnes, that the man tried to illegally cross the border from Norway to Russia.
The lawyer noted that there was a misunderstanding in this regard. The former Wagner mercenary did not approach the border, but simply looked for the place where he entered the country in January. “They stopped him while he was in a taxi. “He never came close to the border… He had no intention of crossing the border,” Risnes said.
Fear of extradition to Ukraine
However, the Norwegian online newspaper “The Barents Observer” states that Medvedev wants to return to Russia because he feels safer there – he fears his extradition to Ukraine. He told this to a correspondent from the media company. In February, Norwegian media reported that Ukraine was considering extraditing the Russian.
After arriving in Norway early this year, Medvedev applied for asylum “out of fear for his life.” He witnessed and reported how Russian prisoners serving on the front lines in Ukraine were abused and murdered by their own people. According to the human rights project Gulagu.net, he had also publicly expressed his frustration with the war, the ‘stupid orders’ at the front and the arbitrariness of the military leadership.
In Russia I’m not sure
In May, the soldier expressed his desire to return to his home country in a video on YouTube. It was clear to him that he was putting his life in danger. He was “a kind of boy in a big game” with whom he no longer wanted to be identified. His lawyer pointed out that Medvedev had the right to return to Russia. However, many changes would have to happen before he would be safe there.
Recurrent delinquency
Medvedev spent four years in Russian custody for theft and affray. The Russian was arrested twice in Norway – for fighting in bars. He was also arrested once in Sweden. The reason was an illegal border crossing. In an interview with the New York Times, the former Wagner mercenary explained that he had clashed with Ukrainians in the Norwegian capital Oslo.
Source: Krone
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