Andrey Medvedev, ex-commander of the Russian group Wagner, seeks asylum in Norway
Medvedev’s Norwegian lawyer also told the AP that his client is seeking asylum in the country. The attorney did not respond to a Washington Post request for comment Monday evening.
Last week, police said an individual, identified only as a foreign national, has been arrested after entering Norway illegally from Russia early on Friday. The two countries share a 123 mile long border.
Reuters, citing the Russian human rights organization Fillet Gulagu, reported that Medvedev fled the Wagner Group after witnessing its capture and the execution of members who deserted the group.
The Shadowy Wagner Group was founded by entrepreneur Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who until Russia started the Ukrainian War had refused any connection to the group. Prigozhin is a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Wagner has been accused of committing atrocities in countries like Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali.
According to US estimates, Wagner deployed 50,000 fighters to Ukraine — 40,000 of them condemned recruited directly from Russian prisons with the offer of a pardon in exchange for six months of service. It is unclear how Medvedev joined the group.
Earlier this month, a member of the Russian Human Rights Council said Putin had secretly pardoned dozens of convicts prior to their deployment to Ukraine.
This isn’t the first report of a Wagner member fleeing the group. Last year, Yevgeny Nuzhin, a 55-year-old murder convict who was released from prison to fight in Ukraine, gave interviews after defecting to Ukrainian forces.
In November, however, an unverified video was shared on a Telegram account linked to Wagner appearing to show his brutal murder with a hammer. It is not known who carried out the alleged execution or when, but a Ukrainian presidential adviser was quoted as saying that Nuzhin had agreed to return to Russia voluntarily. According to Medvedev’s statements to Gulagu Net, cited by Reuters, Nuzhin had been a member of his unit.
Norway, a NATO member, claims to have provided hundreds of millions of dollars humanitarian and military support to Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion almost a year ago.
Last year the Norwegian authorities arrested at least seven Russians to fly drones or take photos near sensitive areas. Among those arrested was the son of a close Putin aide.
