Andrei Medvedev the story has attracted attention around the world. The 26-year-old, who fled to Norway and sought asylum there, says that he fought for the mercenary company Wagner in Bahmut in eastern Ukraine.
If the information provided by Medvedev is correct, he is the first Wagner soldier to escape to the West.
He says that he has witnessed war crimes and wants to tell about them. UN Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine has taken (you switch to another service) contact him and want to talk to him.
But there are holes in Medvedev’s narrative, the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten (you switch to another service) mapping shows.
You defected two weeks ago
Medvedev arrived in Norway exactly two weeks ago on Friday, and he was arrested in the village of Paatsjoki near the Russian border on suspicion of illegal entry.
From there the man was transported to Oslo, where he arrested (you move to another service) under the Immigration Act. Medvedev on Wednesday released (you move to another service) due to lack of evidence. The Norwegian media has not said where he has been placed since then.
The Norwegian immigration authorities are offering him a roof over his head because he has applied for asylum. But not him invest in shared accommodation (you move to another service) with other asylum seekers.
The Norwegian Central Criminal Police and immigration authorities continue to investigate the veracity of his story and investigate whether there are grounds for granting asylum.
All information from one source
Aftenposten questions whether Medvedev has served in Wagner at all. The newspaper points out that all the information about it is based on one source in addition to Medvedev’s own story: the director of the human rights organization Gulagu.net to Vladimir Osetshkin.
Osetshkin’s background is motley. In 2011, he was sentenced to prison for economic crimes and after his release, he founded the anti-corruption and anti-torture Gulagu.net. Among other things, it has revealed gross torture in Russian prisons.
On the other hand, Osetshkin supported the Russian president at the time Vladimir Putin law from foreign agents (you switch to another service) and condemned the Ukrainian revolution in February 2014, Aftenposten reports.
Was Medvedev at war or not?
Russian independent journalist and director of the civil rights organization Russia Behind Bars Olga Romanova tells Aftenposten that he is familiar with Medvedev’s case. His organization was already in contact with this in 2020, but the magazine does not say in which connection.
Romanov doubts whether Medvedev was in the war at all – and at least does not believe that he acted as a group leader. He has an extensive network of inmates hired by Wagner and their families.
– Wagner has been able to recruit him, but he has not been able to be a team leader. He has no combat experience, and no authority, especially among the other prisoners. If he was in the war, he was an ordinary soldier, Romanova tells Aftenposten.
He also wonders where Medvedev’s military insignia has disappeared. Medvedev has shown it in interviews with gulagu.net, but later said that he gave it away or threw it away.
– Why did he do that? In theory, that was the only proof that he was in Ukraine.
Prigozhin: He is very dangerous
Founder and Director of Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin however confirmed For Aftenposten (you switch to another service) a few days after Medvedev’s defection, – before Aftenposten’s investigation of his background – that this had belonged to Wagner.
In an apparent attempt to mock Medvedev’s testimony, Prigozhin claimed he belonged to Wagner’s Nordic mercenary unit Nidhoggi, adding that he had Norwegian citizenship. Nidhoggia is not known to exist (you are moving to another service)and Medvedev’s defense lawyer denies that he has Norwegian citizenship.
Prigozhin also warned that Medvedev is very dangerous and alleged that he had abused prisoners.
Orphanage child from Siberia
Aftenposten has sorted it out (you will switch to another service) also Andrei Medvedev’s backgrounds before the alleged recruitment to Wagner.
He was born in Bakchar, Tomsk region, Siberia, on August 16, 1996. His mother died young, his father left, and Andrei grew up in an orphanage.
In 2014, he began his military service in Ulyanovsk in the Air Force’s 31st Brigade, which Aftenposten describes as an elite unit. When the conscription was over, Medvedev was left without a job and an apartment.
He received his first conviction for theft in 2016 and his second conviction for five thefts a year later. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
In 2020, he moved from Tomsk first to Moscow and then to Simferopol, the Crimean peninsula occupied by Russia from Ukraine. After that, information about his movements is fragmented. He himself says that he joined Wagner on July 6, 2022. He has told his Norwegian lawyer that he had little choice.
– In any case, he believed that he would end up in the army in the first national campaign, says the defense lawyer Brynulf Risnes For Aftenposten.