Norway:
Norwegian police have arrested a former commander of the Wagner mercenary group on suspicion that he tried to illegally cross the border into Russia after seeking asylum in Norway earlier this year, the man’s lawyer said on Saturday.
Andrei Medvedev, who fled Russia across the Arctic border with Norway in January, has described driving away as Russian guards shot at him. He has spoken about his time fighting in Ukraine as part of the Wagner group.
Police said in a statement late Friday that a man in his 20s had been taken into custody for trying to cross the Russian border illegally, but did not give his name. An officer from the local Finnmark police refused to reveal the identity of the arrested man.
Crossing the border into Russia is only allowed at designated points.
But Andrei Medvedev’s arrest was due to a misunderstanding, his Norwegian lawyer Brynjulf Risnes told Reuters news agency.
“He was up there to see if he could find the place where he crossed the border (into Norway in January). He was stopped while he was in a taxi. He was never near the border… He never intended to cross the border. border (to Russia),” Brynjulf Risnes said.
Upon his arrival in Norway, Medvedev said he sought asylum because he feared for his life after witnessing the killing and abuse of Russian prisoners taken to the front lines in Ukraine.
His escape in January made headlines around the world as a rare example of someone defecting to a Western country while claiming to have fought for Russia as a mercenary in the war in Ukraine.
But in May, he said in a video on YouTube that he wanted to return to Russia, even though he believed it could pose a risk to his life. He described himself as “a big game kind of guy” that he no longer wanted. be part of.
Risnes said Medvedev had the right to return to Russia if he wanted, but that “a lot of changes need to happen” to ensure a safe return.
In April, Andrei Medvedev was convicted in Norway of involvement in a bar fight and carrying an air pistol, but was acquitted of committing violence against police. He then said he was looking to the future and hoping for asylum.
Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed on August 23 when a private jet he was using crashed under inexplicable circumstances, just two months after he briefly sent his mercenaries to Moscow in a direct challenge to the Russian establishment.
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