The Norwegian authorities have confirmed that the Russian Andriy Medvedev, who is a former high-ranking member of the "Wagner" PMC, illegally crossed the border and asked for asylum in the Scandinavian country.
The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) confirmed this information to the Associated Press agency.
"Due to security and confidentiality reasons, UDI is unable to provide further comment on this matter," the email to the agency said.
Medvedev's case was transferred to the Norwegian immigration police, and the Russian was transferred to Oslo, where he was placed in a center for violators of migration legislation. Norwegian police refused to comment on the case.
Last week, Norwegian police reported the illegal entry of a man from Russia, identified at the time only as a "foreigner." He was detained by border guards. The man entered a private house in the border area and asked to call the police.
Police said that Russian border guards informed them late on Thursday that they had found tracks in the snow that could indicate someone had crossed the border illegally.
Norwegian news agency NTB reported on Monday that Medvedev had been in hiding since leaving the Wagner group on July 6 after his four-month contract expired.
The Russian publication "Meduza" writes that Medvedev was the commander of the unit, which included Yevhen Nuzhin - a mercenary of "Wagner", whose punishment with a sledgehammer was recorded on a video that appeared online in November.
The founder of the Gulagu.net project (a Russian human rights organization and website that fights torture. - Ed.) Volodymyr Osechkin said that Medvedev crossed the border with Norway in the area of Nickel settlement of the Murmansk region.
Osechkin emphasized that this is the first time since the beginning of the war against Ukraine that the former commander of one of the units of the terrorist group "Wagner", who agreed to testify and expose the oligarch and terrorist Yevgeny Prigozhin, escaped from the Russian Federation to Europe.
According to Osechkin, Medvedev witnessed many executions and extrajudicial killings by Prigozhin's security services against those who refused to fight against Ukrainians and wanted to leave Wagner ranks. After Medvedev left Wagner, Prigozhin himself and his security service tried to detain him. Medvedev feared that he might be executed.