Deserter from "Wagner" Medvedev, who fled to Norway, was detained while trying to enter Russian Federation
Andriy Medvedev, the ex-commander of one of the branches of the Russian PMC "Wagner", who fled to Norway and asked for asylum there, was detained by the Norwegian police during an attempt to illegally cross the border with the Russian Federation.
This was reported by The Barents Observer, Censor.NET informs.
It is noted that the man was detained on Friday evening in the village of Grense Jakobselv on the border with Russia, when he tried to cross the border in the dark and get to the Kola Peninsula.
"We can confirm that a man has been arrested," Finnmark police chief Martin Marum said.
Crossing the land border in this area is illegal.
The attempted border crossing came just hours after Medvedev briefly met with a Barents Observer journalist in the city center of Kirkenes. The 27-year-old former Wagner Group fighter said he intended to cross the border and that he was looking for someone to give him a ride.
As the publication writes, "he looked excited, but at the same time calm and determined." Medvedev explained that he believed he would soon be extradited to Ukraine and that returning to Russia was a safer alternative.
Shortly after the conversation, he apparently managed to get to Grense Jakobselv, 50 km from Kirkenes. In this place, Norway and Russia are separated only by a small shallow river, the publication writes.
It is not clear how Medvedev got to this area. Public transport does not go to the border river.
