“They threatened to kidnap me, kill me, shoot me, or worse, execute me,” the 26-year-old Russian claimed.
A Russian who says he is a former mercenary for the Wagner paramilitary group managed to escape across the Russian-Norwegian border in the Arctic and will seek asylum in Norway, his lawyer said today.
Andrei Medvedev, 26, was arrested after crossing the border illegally on Thursday night into Friday, his Norwegian lawyer, Bryndjulf Risnes, told AFP.
“He is willing to talk about his experience in the Wagner organization to people investigating war crimes,” he said.
In an interview broadcast by the NGO Gulagu, the man he claims to be deserter he explains that his contract was extended against his will, after several months of fighting in Ukraine in the service of this Russian organization led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“My former employers tried to find me, the company WagnerThe Prigozhin and his gang, the FSB (s.s. Russian Federal Security Service). They issued (against me) a wanted notice for a crime through the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs,” the 26-year-old claimed.
“They threatened to kidnap me, kill me, shoot me, or worse, execute me like Nuzin,” an ex-convict and deserter from Wagner, whose brutal sledgehammer execution was filmed and published in the media November.
Claiming to be the leader of a unit of ten men, he recounts crossing a frozen river, the Pasvik, that separates Russia from Norway in the far north, with a Russian patrol in hot pursuit.
“I heard dogs barking, turned around, saw people with flashlights, about 150 meters away, running in my direction,” he said.
“I heard two shots, the bullets could be heard from far away (…) I was running on the ice, with the lights of the houses helping me, for about two kilometers,” he continued.
According to his lawyer, he then went to Norwegians explaining that he had crossed the border illegally, before being arrested by police a short time later.
According to Bryndjulf Risnes, his client had decided not to renew his contract with Wagner after experiencing “something completely different from what he expected”.
AFP could not independently confirm that the young Russian fought in Wagner’s ranks.
RES-EMP
Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
