On Friday evening, the police in Sør-Varanger arrested a man in his 20s at Grense Jakobselv. According to the online newspaper The Barents Observer, it was the former Wagner soldier, Andrej Medvedev (27), who tried to return to Russia illegally. Nettavisen writes that the attempted border crossing came only a few hours after Medvedev had a short meeting with a journalist from the Barents Observer in the center of Kirkenes. The 27-year-old former Wagner soldier then said he intended to cross the border and was looking for someone with a car to give him a ride. – He explained that he believed that he would soon be extradited to Ukraine and that a return to Russia would be a safer option, writes the online newspaper. Investigating the case The police in Finnmark will not state the nationality of the man who was arrested on the Norwegian side by Norwegian police. Operations manager Martin Marum Marum in the Finnmark police district does not know whether the man got over to the Russian side and then came back, or whether he was arrested before he crossed the border. – We are working to find out what has happened and why. The investigation must show that. Crossed the border illegally Medvedev crossed the border to Norway at Skrøytnes in Pasvikdalen in January this year. He said after his arrest in Norway that he got help from people in Murmansk to get to the town of Nikkel, one mile from the border with Norway. From there he is said to have started his escape wearing a white dressing gown. He is said to have climbed over the barbed wire fence on the Russian side and ran across the frozen Pasvikelva. Medvedev claims he was persecuted. He said he saw headlights and heard dogs behind him. Shots should also have been fired at him, claimed the Russian defector.
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Former Wagner soldier arrested on the border with Russia – news Troms and Finnmark
