A Wagner Group commander who claims to have deserted the Russian mercenaries is willing to testify against its leaders has described a harrowing escape across a desolate Arctic frontier to seek political asylum in Norway.
Andrei Medvedev told human rights activists of a night spent dodging bullets, evading sniffer dogs and running across a frozen river in a night gown at the northernmost reaches of mainland Europe – in favour of the brutal retribution he claims to fear at the hands of his last employer.
The group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has sought to establish the group he founded in 2014 as key to Vladimir Putin’s war efforts in Ukraine, demanding credit last week for Russia’s claimed – but contested – capture of the Donetsk town of Soledar, in an extraordinary public spat with Moscow’s defence ministry.
Throught the war in Ukraine, Mr Prigozhin has sought to bolster Wagner’s ranks by offering violent criminals pardons and freedom from Russian prisons if they serve in Ukraine.
Despite not being incarcerated, Mr Medvedev, signed up in July for a period of four months, during which was stationed as a unit commander near Bakhmut. Upon being told that he himself had to stay on beyond the agreed term, as well as what Mr Medvedev says were threats of extrajudicial action if he left, Mr Medvedev escaped and went into hiding in Russia, before fleeing across the border into Nato member Norway on Thursday night.
Police in Norway’s Finnmark region confirmed that a man had been apprehended by border guards and had applied for asylum, but would not explicitly confirm his identity, state broadcaster NRK reported. “It is obvious that he will be checked out in every possible way,” Brynjulf Risnes, Mr Medvedev’s lawyer, told state broadcaster NRK. “First, you have to check if what he says is true. There are surely many people who think this could be a provocation.”
Speaking to Russian human rights group Gulagu.net from a migrant detention centre in Oslo, Mr Medvedev claimed to have climbed two barbed-wire fences, dodged Russian bullets and fled sniffer dogs as he ran across the frozen Pasvik River, while wearing a dressing gown.
Having set off from the Russian town of Nikel, deep in the Arctic Circle, he recalled: “I heard dogs barking behind me, the spotlights came on and shots were fired at me. I just ran towards the forest.”
“I ran towards the first lights of houses that I could see, maybe two or two and a half kilometres away. I just ran and ran and ran,” he said. “I was afraid to look around and to see a dog but as I understand it got confused and lost.”
In his interview with Gulagu, published on Sunday, Mr Medvedev told the human rights group that he would “of course” be happy to testify against Mr Prigozhin at the International Criminial Court in the Hague.
Gulagu founder Vladimir Osechkin, was quoted by Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta as saying that Medvedev was the first former Wagner commander to escape to Europe and express a willingness to testify against Mr Prigozhin since the Ukraine war began.
