Image of Andrei Medvedev in a video published by the NGO Gulagu on January 15. GULAGU.NET / VIA Portal
He is not the first Russian fighter to desert, but he is the first from the ranks of Wagner, the group of Russian mercenaries leading the Donbass offensive. Andrei Medvedev, 26, poses as the former chief of the 1st section of the 4th platoon of Wagner’s 7th assault battalion and claims to have fought in Ukraine. He entered Norway illegally on the night of Thursday 12/Friday 13 January to seek asylum.
Mr Medvedev is a former Russian Army soldier who served a prison sentence between 2017 and 2018. According to the NGO Gulagu, which says it helped him flee his country, he joined Wagner on July 6, 2022 with a four-month contract during which he led a dozen men into battle. But by the end of that time, he would have learned that the group intended to extend his engagement indefinitely. The young man then chose to desert and hid in Russia for two months.
In an interview with the independent Russian online newspaper The Insider and in a video posted on Gulagu’s YouTube channel, Andrei Medvedev says he left Wagner after witnessing the killing of “refusers,” those recruits who refused to to fight against the Ukrainians or this wanted desert. In doing so, he conjures up the role of a special forces unit that executes both Ukrainians and roving mercenaries.
This is not the first time he has warned of abuses being perpetrated with brutal methods by this private military contractor. As early as December 2022, via Gulagu, he questioned the Russian authorities about these extrajudicial executions and asked for the intervention of the FSB – the country’s secret service – and President Vladimir Putin.
Incredible leak
His escape from Russia, as he recounts in the video released by Gulagu, has everything from the spy movie, Cold War era. Dressed in white camouflage, he leaves Nikel, an urban municipality in Murmansk Oblast (northwest), but border guards spot him as he prepares to cross the Pasvik, a river that separates Russia from Norway:
“I heard dogs barking, I turned around, I saw people with flashlights running in my direction about 150 meters away. I heard two shots, bullets whistling not far away. I broke my phone and threw it in the forest, then I ran on the ice to the light of the houses. They released the dog, but apparently it got tangled up somewhere. They were probably afraid to run after me themselves, the ice was thin. »
Arriving in Norway, Andreï Medvedev knocks on the door of a residential building in the Skroytnes area. He was quickly arrested by a Norwegian patrol and police warned by Russia.
Brynjulf Risnes, the defector’s Norwegian attorney, said his client, now in “Oslo territory,” decided to leave Wagner after “experiencing things that were completely different from what he expected.” “He says he took part in fighting (…) and had no contact with civilians,” the council said.
Mr Risnes added that Mr Medvedev took evidence of war crimes committed in Ukraine and that he intends to pass this information to groups investigating these allegations.
Questions about the nationality of the deserter
On Telegram, the Wagner group tries to discredit the former mercenary. In response to questions from the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, he wrote: “Yes, indeed, Andrei Medvedev fought in Nidhögg, Wagner’s Norwegian battalion, because he has Norwegian citizenship. But he should have been prosecuted for attempting to abuse prisoners. Detailed documents are available from Wagner’s security department and should be handed over to the Russian authorities. He was previously on the wanted list. Be careful, it’s very dangerous. Without addressing the murder and abuse allegations against his own recruits. In response to those allegations, Mr Risnes said on Tuesday that his client “has absolutely no Norwegian nationality or any previous connection with Norway, as far as I know”.
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Earlier in January, the private military company had said via the same messaging system: “To date we have 67 [combattants] from Norway. “Claims that could not be confirmed for the time being.
Andrei Medvedev knows the fate of deserters in Russia: “I was threatened with kidnapping, murder, shooting or, even worse, being sentenced to mass murder [Evgueni] nojine The Russian was the leader of an ex-convict deserter whose horrific execution was filmed and publicized in mid-November.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers The Russian mercenary group Wagner openly stages the execution of a deserter