Police said in a press release late on Friday {that a} man in his 20s had been arrested for making an attempt to enter Russia illegally, however they didn’t give his title. The establish of the person who had been detained was withheld by a Finnmark native police officer Picture Courtesy Reuters
A former Wagner mercenary group commander was detained by Norwegian police on suspicion of making an attempt to enter Russia illegally after making use of for asylum there earlier this yr, in line with the person’s lawyer on Saturday.
Andrei Medvedev recalled fleeing as Russian guards opened fireplace on him in his account of his January flight from Russia over the nation’s Arctic border with Norway. He has talked about his time preventing for the Wagner group in Ukraine.
Police said in a press release late on Friday {that a} man in his 20s had been arrested for making an attempt to enter Russia illegally, however they didn’t give his title. The establish of the person who had been detained was withheld by a Finnmark native police officer.
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Traversing the border to Russia is simply allowed at designated factors.
However Medvedev’s arrest was on account of a misunderstanding, his Norwegian lawyer Brynjulf Risnes advised the media.
“He was up there to see if he could find the place where he crossed (into Norway in January). He was stopped when he was in a taxi. He was never near the border … It was never his intention to cross the border (into Russia),” Risnes stated.
When he first arrived in Norway, Medvedev claimed he was in search of refuge as a result of he feared for his life after seeing Russian captives who had been carried to the entrance traces of the Ukrainian battle killed and handled badly.
His escape in January garnered worldwide consideration as a then-rare occasion of a defection to a Western nation whereas claiming to have participated within the Ukraine Warfare as a mercenary for Russia.
Though he acknowledged that doing so might endanger his life, he said in a YouTube video that he needed to return to Russia and described himself as “some kind of a boy in a big game” that he not needed to be part of.
Risnes reported Medvedev had the correct to return to Russia if he needed to, however that “a lot of changes need to happen” in an effort to make a secure return.
In Norway, Medvedev was discovered responsible in April of taking part in a pub brawl and having an air gun on him, however not of attacking cops. He then said that he hoped for asylum and was seeking to the long run.
Simply two months after sending his mercenaries ahead on Moscow in a direct menace to the Russian system, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was assassinated when a non-public jet he used crashed on August 23.
(With company inputs)