High-ranking Wagner mercenary arrested in Norway after dodging Russian bullets while fleeing across border

A senior mercenary from Vladimir Putin’s private military company Wagner has been arrested in Norway after fleeing across the border.

Russian Andrei Medvedev said he came under Russian gunfire as he entered the Scandinavian country where he is seeking asylum. He is currently in police custody on suspicion of entering Norway illegally, authorities said.

The Wagner deserter “has been arrested under the Immigration Act and an investigation is underway as to whether he should be brought into custody,” Jon Andreas Johansen of Norway’s immigration police told reporters. According to the Norwegian newspaper VG, his detention is not a punishment, but a security measure.

Medvedev, who fears for his life, is believed to have entered Norway illegally after crossing the 200 km border into Russia earlier this month.

In a video posted by Russian dissident group Gulagu.net, Medvedev said he came under Russian gunfire before entering the Scandinavian country.

Norwegian police said they were alerted by Russian border guards to tracks in the snow that suggested someone may have crossed the border illegally.

Medvedef’s Norwegian lawyer, Brynjulf ​​Risnes, told broadcaster NRK that his client is not suspected of any crime and that he is not used to Norway’s new, stricter security measures.

“Strict security measures have been taken. Medvedev is struggling to adapt,” Risnes told NRK.

Medvedev claimed he was arrested and handcuffed at a hotel where he was staying on Sunday and taken to a detention centre.

Gulagu.net said Medvedev was told he would be deported.

When asked about the claim, a Norwegian police spokesman said: “No, it’s not true,” without elaborating.

Medvedef’s Norwegian lawyer, Brynyulf Risnes, assessed the risk of his deportation as “zero”, adding that he had been detained for “disagreement” over measures to ensure his safety. “It is subject to very strict security measures and we disagree on how they are applied. It created friction,” Risnes told Reuters.

Russian Andrei Medvedev said he came under Russian gunfire as he entered the Scandinavian country where he is seeking asylum. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier drives a tank near the Donbass front in Ukraine on January 18

Wagner gave deserters good reason to fear. In November, Russian prisoner-turned-Wagner Yevgeny Nuzhin – who switched sides in the war in Ukraine – was executed with a sledgehammer, a disturbing video circulated online (photo, a photo from the video).

Paranoid Putin ‘turns on’ Wagner boss after PMC boss ‘didn’t get the hint’

Norway’s National Criminal Service, which is involved in investigating war crimes in Ukraine, said it was questioning Medvedev about who has “witness status”.

Medvedev, who has been on the run since leaving the Wagner group, reportedly told Gulagu.net that he is ready to share everything he knows about the shadowy paramilitary group and its owner, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Prigozhin is a millionaire with ties to the Russian president.

He is known as Putin’s chef de cuisine for providing catering services for the Kremlin and also for leading the infamous private army that carried out the Kremlin’s orders in the Middle East, Africa and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Medvedev said he left the Wagner Group after his contract was extended from July to November without his consent.

He said he was willing to testify about any war crimes he witnessed and denied involvement.

The Wagner group, which has led attacks on Ukrainian troops, includes large numbers of prisoners recruited from Russian prisons.

The group has gained influence in Africa and has been linked to murders of civilians in Mali. It rose to prominence during Russia’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, and reports also stationed its fighters in Libya and Burkina Faso.

A Ukrainian soldier monitors the situation in a location on the northern side of the Donbass

Medvedev, an orphan who joined the Russian army and was in prison before joining Wagner on July 6, 2022, said in the video on Gulagu.net that he slipped out of the group after witnessing the killing of captured deserters. saw of Wagner.

“I’m afraid to die in pain,” Medvedev told Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the rights group Gulagu.net, who said it helped Medvedev leave Russia after he approached the group fearing for his life.

Wagner gave deserters good reason to fear. In November, Russian prisoner and Wagnerian fighter Yevgeny Nuzhin – who switched sides in the war in Ukraine – was executed with a sledgehammer, a disturbing video circulated online.

Prigozhin described Nuzhin as a traitor, with Vladimir Putin’s closest ally saying “a dog gets a dog’s death” in response to the clip.

Medvedev said Nuzhin was part of his unit.

“My goal in coming here was of course firstly to save my life and secondly to tell the truth to the people and the world,” he said in the telephone interview with Gulagu.net recorded on Monday.

He said he also wanted to “punish” Prigozhin, founder of Wagner, for the deaths of people who died in Ukraine under his orders.

Gulagu.net said Medvedev would face “brutal murder and death” for speaking out against Wagner if sent back to Russia. “We do not approve of Medvedev. He has done a lot of bad things in his life,” the rights group said.

“But he saw the light, he realized that, he is ready and willing to cooperate with the world, with the international investigation and with the authorities of Norway, he wants to live and testify,” Wagner and Prigozhin say it.

Prigozhin (pictured left with Vladimir Putin in 2010) – himself a former con artist who is now Wagner’s billionaire head – took no prisoners when it came to Wagner deserts

News of Medvedev’s arrest comes amid reports of a growing feud between the Russian president and Yevgeny Prigozhin.

It is clear that Prigozhin was constantly delighted that his private paramilitary fighters were superior and more successful than Russia’s conventional armed forces.

Earlier this month, Prigozhin undermined Putin by boasting that his fighters had single-handedly taken control of the fighting-ravaged eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar.

Putin felt threatened by Prigozhin’s rise and his tactless self-assertion, experts at the Institute for the Study of War said today.