On the night of Friday, he escaped across the border from Russia to Norway. He will be questioned by the PST, and says he himself witnessed war crimes. Andrej Medvedev talks openly about his own history, or at least the version he wants to make known. The information is largely provided by Gulagu and leader Vladimir Osechkin, who claims to have investigated his background and had some of it confirmed. Osechkin says that Medvedev and a close friend contacted the organization in December 2022. Medvedev wanted out of Russia, and asked for help. Andrej Medvedev said that he commanded a squad in the famous mercenary group Wagner, and was stationed in Luhansk county. There they took part in battles outside the city of Artyomovsk, he says. The ticket must show Medvedev’s Russian passport. He himself claimed that he wanted to leave his fighting position with Wagner after his four-month contract ended, but was not allowed by the leaders. He is said to have escaped from there with the help of several of the soldiers in his squad, and hid in Russia. – Well, of course I regret going there at all, Medvedev says of the Wagner group in a video published by Gulagu. – But what’s done is done. After he fled, Prigozhin is said to have taken action together with the security service in Russia to arrest him. This is the reason Medvedev gives for crossing the border into Norway. He further says that Russians are forced by the Wagner group to kill Ukrainians, and are threatened with being shot if they do not want to. – I am not guilty of any crime. I am asking for assistance so that all investigations, persecution and threats against me can stop, he says further in the video. – I am also asking for help to get the guys who were arrested in connection with my leaving my department released. Joined Wagner when he got out of prison As news has previously reported, the Wagner group has recruited many of its soldiers from Russian prisons. The group was founded by the man who is called “Putin’s chef”, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and has been important to the Russian military both before and during the war in Ukraine. Medvedev, who, among other things, is said to have been imprisoned for theft, says he signed up as a soldier when he got out of prison on 6 July 2022. He claims to have seen defectors being killed with sledgehammers, and that he then became afraid to meet same fate. The human rights group Gulagu calls Medvedev a “valuable source” of the human rights violations committed by the Wagner group. Photo: TELEGRAM According to Medvedev, this “signature execution” is carried out against “deniers”, i.e. soldiers who refuse to kill Ukrainians or want to leave the military group. One of the soldiers in his squad is said to have been Yevgeny Nuzhin, a well-known defector and formerly imprisoned Russian, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph. In November, Nuzjin was returned to Wagner in a prisoner exchange. He was then killed by a Wagner soldier, who crushed his head with a sledgehammer. Supposed to have spoken to Medvedev yesterday, Osechkin says that they last spoke to Medvedev and his lawyers on Sunday. – Andrej Medvedev himself has decided to remain in the public spotlight, to answer the questions of journalists, and to do as much as possible so that people can understand his story better, Osechkin said in a YouTube stream on Monday. – This history is particularly aimed at uncovering crimes against all people, war crimes in which the Wagner group and Yevgeny Prigozhin personally were involved. Vladimir Osechkin is the leader of the human rights group Gulagu, which in the autumn claimed that he had been tried to be killed by Russian intelligence. Photo: Francois Mori / AP Osechkin, who is also president of the organization New dissidents foundation, says the most common question they have been asked since Medvedev’s case became known is “why help?” – We have been protecting human rights for more than 11 years. For most of this period, we have protected the rights of people living in captivity in Russia, he replies, and describes the moment when Medvedev and his close friend made contact. – Medvedev contacted us to save his life. In this case, we are not trying to defend him, try to clean him up or justify his participation in the Wagner group. It is true that Medvedev had a very difficult life until he arrived on Norwegian territory. Osechkin says that Medvedev is an orphan and grew up in an orphanage, then served in the Russian military when he was old enough. As part of this service, he is said to have taken part in warfare on Ukrainian territory as early as 2014, among other things probably in Donbas. Medvedev’s lawyer took this picture of the scratch on his back after crossing the border to Norway. Photo: Vladimir Osechkin It is after this service that he will still be in prison. Osechkin says that the organization has found information about one of the trials against him in Russian archives, and has also spoken to someone who was in prison with him during the period he has referred to. On Monday morning, Osechkin published two pictures on both Facebook and the messaging app Telegram, which he claimed disproved this. They show a man who is supposed to be Medvedev, and has several scratches on his body. Although Medvedev has claimed that he was shot at, the photo did not show any gunshot wounds. Osechkin further writes that Andrej yesterday complained of a fever and poor form, in addition to pain from injuries and wounds. “It will be a Mullah Krekar case” Camilla Guldahl Cooper is an associate professor in the Staff School at the Norwegian Defense Academy, and an expert in international law. She does not think Medvedev will get a residence permit in Norway, regardless of what information he can supply. – It is unlikely, I would say, as he is connected to murders that were committed on a large scale and caused great material destruction, she says. Camilla Guldahl Cooper thinks it is unlikely that Medvedev will be allowed to stay in Norway. Photo: Forsvaret.no – You are not normally allowed to stay if you are guilty of war crimes. At the same time, Medvedev cannot be extradited, she says, and refers to the defector who was killed last week by the Wagner group with a sledgehammer. – If he comes back to Russia, he will be killed, most likely. So it will be a challenging situation for the Norwegian authorities. – It will be a Mullah Krekar case, then. He will not be granted residence, will not receive asylum, but cannot be deported either. Then he will be sitting in limbo. When it comes to what Medvedev is guilty of, the alleged leadership role in the Wagner group is more serious than participation in the Russian military, according to Guldahl Cooper. – We all know that Wagner actually operates on behalf of Russia. Russia has previously denied that they are Russian soldiers. If we say that they are mercenaries, then they are not actually allowed to do anything. – The threshold for war crimes will largely be the same, but it will then be easier to prove, because those who are civilians or mercenaries must not attack anyone.
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