OSLO: After fleeing across the Russian border into Norway in a harrowing escape, a former Wagner mercenary could now shed valuable light on the Russian paramilitary group’s brutal methods in Ukraine.
Analysts say Andrei Medvedev, who dodged bullets fired by Russian border guards hot on his heels with attack dogs in the middle of the Arctic night, could provide important evidence in war crimes investigations against Moscow.
The 26-year-old crossed the border illegally last week to seek asylum in Norway, dashing across the frozen Pasvik river that divides Russia and the Scandinavian country in the far north.
In a video published at the weekend by rights group Gulagu.net, the Russian says he fought in Ukraine as a Wagner unit commander for between five and 10 soldiers.
He claims he deserted when the controversial group extended his four-month contract against his will in November.
“He’s a person of interest, mainly as a first-hand witness within the Wagner Group... including for any future post-war tribunals on the atrocities committed in Ukraine,” said Tor Bukkvoll, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies.
“He was probably in Bakhmut,” a town in eastern Ukraine that Russian troops have been trying to seize for months, he told AFP.
“And he could reveal things from the inside that no one else has been able to speak about.”
In an interview with news site The Insider in December, Medvedev said he knew of 10 Wagner mercenaries executed by the group because they refused to return to fight in Ukraine.
He claimed to have in his possession a video showing the killing of two of them, and said it would be published if anything bad ever happened to him.
Medvedev said one of the men under his command was Evgeny Nuzhin, who was accused of surrendering to Ukrainian forces and killed with a sledgehammer by Wagner after he was returned to Russia in a prisoner swap.
AFP has not been able to independently verify Medvedev’s account.
Briefly arrested upon his arrival in Norway and then released, Medvedev has or will soon be questioned by both Norwegian immigration authorities and the criminal police (Kripos), which is taking part in an international inquiry into war crimes in Ukraine.
“He claims himself to have been a member of Wagner, and it is of interest to Kripos to obtain more information about this period,” police said Tuesday.
Medvedev’s Norwegian lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes, told AFP his client was “willing to speak about his experiences in the Wagner Group to people who are investigating war crimes.”
According to the lawyer, the deserter was carrying several USB sticks on him during his escape to Norway.
“What he has to say is interesting because we don’t have a lot of first-hand accounts from Wagner soldiers, but there are two things to take into consideration here,” researcher Bukkvoll said.
“Firstly, Wagner’s brutality has been notorious for a long time, even before the Ukraine conflict, including in Syria where the group killed prisoners of war,” he continued.
“And Medvedev seems to have been of pretty low rank in the organization and it is therefore unlikely that he will be able to reveal anything about what has gone on in the higher ranks.”
Questions have been raised about Wagner’s relationship with the Russian military, with numerous observers citing tensions between the two.
Wagner head Evgeny Prigozhin is believed to have political ambitions and is seen as using the group as a rival force to the Russian army.
While Prigozhin recently boasted that Wagner troops alone seized the town of Soledar from Ukrainian troops after fierce fighting, the Kremlin has insisted there is no conflict between it and the army.
Meanwhile, Wagner — which has heavily recruited soldiers from Russian prisons — reacted to Medvedev’s defection with irony.
Medvedev was given a two-year suspended sentence for theft and ended up serving part of his sentence after a conflict with authorities, according to his Norwegian lawyer.
“He was to be prosecuted for having tried to assault prisoners,” Prigozhin said through his press service earlier this week.
“He was until now on the wanted list. Watch out, he’s very dangerous.”
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Russian deserter in Oslo ready to spill Wagner’s secrets
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Russian deserter in Oslo ready to spill Wagner’s secrets
- Andrei Medvedev dodged bullets and attack dogs when crossing from Russia into Norway
- Tor Bukkvoll: ‘He’s a person of interest, mainly as a first-hand witness within the Wagner Group’
Journalists in Bangladesh demand protection amid rising attacks
- Media industry in the South Asian country is being systematically targeted
- Interim government blamed for failing to adequately respond to the incidents
DHAKA: Journalists, editors and owners of media outlets in Bangladesh on Saturday demanded that authorities protect them following recent attacks on two leading national dailies by mobs.
They said the media industry in the South Asian country is being systematically targeted in the interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. They said the administration failed to prevent attacks on the Daily Star, the country’s leading English-language daily, and the Prothom Alo, the largest Bengali-language newspaper, both based in Dhaka, the capital.
In December, angry mobs stormed the offices of the two newspapers and set fire to the buildings, trapping journalists and other staff inside, shortly after the death of a prominent Islamist activist.
The newspaper authorities blamed the authorities under the interim government for failing to adequately respond to the incidents despite repeated requests for help to disperse the mobs. Hours later, the trapped journalists who took shelter on the roof of the Daily Star newspaper were rescued. The buildings were looted. A leader of the Editors Council, an independent body of newspaper editors, was manhandled by the attackers when he arrived at the scene.
On the same day, liberal cultural centers were also attacked in Dhaka.
It was not clear why the protesters attacked the newspapers, whose editors are known to be closely connected with Yunus. Protests had been organized in recent months outside the offices of the dailies by Islamists who accused the newspapers of links with India.
On Saturday, the Editors Council and the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh jointly organized a conference where editors, journalist union leaders and journalists from across the country demanded that the authorities uphold the free press amid rising tensions ahead of elections in February.
Nurul Kabir, President of the Editors Council, said attempts to silence media and democratic institutions reflect a dangerous pattern.
Kabir, also the editor of the English-language New Age daily, said unity among journalists should be upheld to fight such a trend.
“Those who want to suppress institutions that act as vehicles of democratic aspirations are doing so through laws, force and intimidation,” he said.
After the attacks on the two dailies in December, an expert of the United Nations said that mob attacks on leading media outlets and cultural centers in Bangladesh were deeply alarming and must be investigated promptly and effectively.
“The weaponization of public anger against journalists and artists is dangerous at any time, and especially now as the country prepares for elections. It could have a chilling effect on media freedom, minority voices and dissenting views with serious consequences for democracy,” Irene Khan said in a statement.
Yunus came to power after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising in August, 2024. Yunus had promised stability in the country, but global human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have blamed the government for its failure to uphold human and other civil rights. The Yunus-led regime has also been blamed for the rise of the radicals and Islamists.
Dozens of journalists are facing murder charges linked to the uprising on the grounds that they encouraged the government of Hasina to use lethal weapons against the protesters. Several journalists who are known to have close links with Hasina have been arrested and jailed under Yunus.
They said the media industry in the South Asian country is being systematically targeted in the interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. They said the administration failed to prevent attacks on the Daily Star, the country’s leading English-language daily, and the Prothom Alo, the largest Bengali-language newspaper, both based in Dhaka, the capital.
In December, angry mobs stormed the offices of the two newspapers and set fire to the buildings, trapping journalists and other staff inside, shortly after the death of a prominent Islamist activist.
The newspaper authorities blamed the authorities under the interim government for failing to adequately respond to the incidents despite repeated requests for help to disperse the mobs. Hours later, the trapped journalists who took shelter on the roof of the Daily Star newspaper were rescued. The buildings were looted. A leader of the Editors Council, an independent body of newspaper editors, was manhandled by the attackers when he arrived at the scene.
On the same day, liberal cultural centers were also attacked in Dhaka.
It was not clear why the protesters attacked the newspapers, whose editors are known to be closely connected with Yunus. Protests had been organized in recent months outside the offices of the dailies by Islamists who accused the newspapers of links with India.
On Saturday, the Editors Council and the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh jointly organized a conference where editors, journalist union leaders and journalists from across the country demanded that the authorities uphold the free press amid rising tensions ahead of elections in February.
Nurul Kabir, President of the Editors Council, said attempts to silence media and democratic institutions reflect a dangerous pattern.
Kabir, also the editor of the English-language New Age daily, said unity among journalists should be upheld to fight such a trend.
“Those who want to suppress institutions that act as vehicles of democratic aspirations are doing so through laws, force and intimidation,” he said.
After the attacks on the two dailies in December, an expert of the United Nations said that mob attacks on leading media outlets and cultural centers in Bangladesh were deeply alarming and must be investigated promptly and effectively.
“The weaponization of public anger against journalists and artists is dangerous at any time, and especially now as the country prepares for elections. It could have a chilling effect on media freedom, minority voices and dissenting views with serious consequences for democracy,” Irene Khan said in a statement.
Yunus came to power after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising in August, 2024. Yunus had promised stability in the country, but global human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have blamed the government for its failure to uphold human and other civil rights. The Yunus-led regime has also been blamed for the rise of the radicals and Islamists.
Dozens of journalists are facing murder charges linked to the uprising on the grounds that they encouraged the government of Hasina to use lethal weapons against the protesters. Several journalists who are known to have close links with Hasina have been arrested and jailed under Yunus.
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