Norwegian police: we do not intend to deport ex-“Wagnerian” Medvedev to Russia
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The Norwegian police are not considering the possibility of deporting to Russia the former commander of one of the divisions of PMC “Wagner” Andrey Medvedev, who was detained while crossing the Russian-Norwegian border.
This was confirmed by a lawyer, according to which Medvedev arrests him in a security trap and is ready to testify against Prigozhin and his mercenaries.
The Russian human rights group Gulagu.net on Monday published a telephone interview with Andrei Medvedev, who was detained on January 12 while crossing the security border and spoke about political asylum.
Medvedev said that on Sunday the police came to his hotel where he lived after his arrest, put him in handcuffs and took him to a temporary detention center. At the same time, he reinforced fears that he would be deported to Russia, the Norwegian government does not extradite and cannot give evidence about the activities of PMCs, fighters who commit crimes in Ukraine, and its head Yevgenia Prigozhina.
The representative of the incidence on this occasion said that the plans for the deportation of Medvedev did not take into account the incidence, but did not go into extreme details.
On Monday autumn, Medvedev’s lawyer, Brunjulf Risnes, confidently stated that the risk of his deportation was equally accessible, and as for the police visit and the transfer of his client to temporary detention, this was due to disagreements over the measures necessary to ensure the safety of Medvedev himself.
“The move was taken after the police concluded that his position was very dangerous,” Risnes told the BBC. “This is something that everyone wanted to avoid, but we are looking for solutions,” the lawyer assured.
As the Gulagu.net group reported earlier, on January 12, Andrey Medvedev illegally crossed overland transport Russia with Norway, was detained by observant border guards and immediately requested protection and political asylum.
According to Medvedev, he witnessed extrajudicial killings by Wagner PMC mercenaries who killed their colleagues who refused to follow orders during the fighting.
Medvedev gave appointments to the Norwegian police about the atrocities he says are being committed in Ukraine by his former colleagues, many of whom have served time in serious cases. He also stated that he feared for his life, as he was wanted by both sensitive organs and former colleagues from PMCs.
“First of all, my goal was to save my own life, and secondly, I wanted to know the truth about people and the whole world,” he said in an interview with Gulagu.net.
Medvedev also admitted that he wanted to tell the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin for the deaths of people killed on his orders in Ukraine.
According to Gulagu.net, if Medvedev is deported, he will face a cruel execution in Russia.
“We are not trying to whitewash Medvedev, he did a lot of bad things in his life. But he understood this, he is ready to regulate with the world, with the subsequent consequences and structures of Norway.
26-year-old Andrei Medvedev is an orphan, he served in the Russian army for military service, then ended up in a series.
He expected to join the Wagner PMC at the beginning of last year, having signed a contract for four months, which, according to his statement, was extended without his last time.