A commander of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner says he managed to flee Russia over the weekend. From Norway where he requested political asylum, he told his journey to the Russian NGO Gulagu.
Andrei Medvedev claims to have climbed two barbed wire fences in the middle of the night and crossed the frozen Pasvik River which separates Russia and Norway. He says he dodged the shots and dogs of the Russian border guards. From the detention center for migrants in Oslo, the young man assured the founder of the Russian NGO Gulagu by telephone that he was ready to testify against the paramilitary group. He says he has evidence of extrajudicial executions carried out by the mercenaries.
Wagner recruits in Russian prisons. Andrei Medvedev sentenced for theft, has agreed to fight in July for four months. After an imposed extension of 6 months, he chose to desert with the help of the fighters of his unit.
Hidden in Russia, he published a video a few weeks ago denouncing the extreme violence exercised by the Wagner group. He was the commander of a unit fighting in Bakhmout in the Donbass. He claims his men were used as cannon fodder. One of them, Yevgeny Nuzhin, who had also deserted, was killed with a club to the skull by another member of the Wagner group. The whole thing had been filmed and broadcast on Telegram.