Medvedev got across the border to Norway at Skrøytnes in Pasvikdalen, according to the police in Finnmark.
He was then arrested at 01.58 night to Friday.
– The man was arrested by a border patrol from the Norwegian Armed Forces and the police. The man has applied for asylum in Norway, says chief of staff in Finnmark police district Tarjei Sirma-Tellefsen in a press release.
Various Russian media and online opposition channels have reported that Medvedev claims he is a defector from the infamous Wagner group mercenary business.
Dramatic escape
In a video clip on the Russian website Gulag Medvedev tells a dramatic story about how he allegedly got to Norway.
He says that he must have had help from people in Murmansk to get to the town of Nikkel, one mile from the border with Norway.
From there he is said to have started his escape wearing a white dressing gown. He is said to have climbed over the barbed wire fence on the Russian side and ran across the frozen Pasvikelva.
Medvedev claims he was persecuted. He says he saw headlights and heard dogs behind him. Shots should also have been fired at him, claims the Russian defector.
PST oriented
PST confirms to NRK that they have been notified of the case.
– PST was informed about the incident shortly after it took place, says communications adviser Martin Bernsen in the Police Security Service (PST) to NRK.
At present, Bernsen cannot go into details of the man’s history and his background. He explains, however, that the service will monitor the case going forward.
– It will be natural for PST to follow the case to assess whether it falls within our tasks, says Bernsen to NRK.
Claims he has a background in mercenary activities
The Wagner Group is known for very heavy-handed warfare.
The company is said to have both been mercenaries on other continents, and participated in the war in Ukraine on the Russian side.
The Russian websites claim that the man who has now escaped to Norway should have had a leadership role in the Wagner group, but that he defected.
He himself claims that he was the commander of a division of between five and ten men in a Wagner squad.
Medvedev says he will explain to the Norwegian police and to a possible international court about what he has seen in Ukraine.
He claims to have witnessed mass executions, but is very vague about his own role in these events.
The Wagner group is known for being very brutal. Also against their own soldiers if they try to desert or disobey orders.
In November, an alleged Wagner defector was killed with a sledgehammer by his own people. The murder was filmed and published online. This soldier is said to have been part of Medvedev’s squad, but it is not known whether the Russian witnessed this.
Has applied for asylum in Norway
NRK has spoken to the Russian’s lawyer, who confirms that the man the police have mentioned in connection with an illegal border crossing is his client.
The lawyer will not say anything about what is the background for Medvedev escaping to Norway and asking for protection.
– He has applied for political asylum in Norway. The asylum process is underway for him in the usual way. I don’t want to say anything about the basis for the asylum application, says the lawyer Jens Bernhard Herstad to NRK.
Herstad cannot at present answer what role the man may have had in Russian warfare – or whether the man actually worked for the Wagner group.
Escaped across the border into private houses
Neighbors by the Pasvikelva say that they discovered a lot of activity on the Russian side of the border at night. Snowmobiles, searchlights and lots of personnel.
When the man got over the border, he is said to have sought out a private residence.
There, the man asked for help, and the police were contacted.
– The man must have visited a private house in the border area and asked for help. We were also notified by Russian border guards about the discovery of traces that could indicate that someone had crossed the border illegally. A search was then immediately initiated by the border guard and the police, says Tarjei Sirma-Tellefsen of the police in Finnmark.
Both border guards from the Norwegian Armed Forces and the police then came to the scene and arrested the man.
– We are now working to confirm the identity of the person, and are interviewing the man, says Sirma-Tellefsen.
Meetings between Norway and Russia at the border
Border Commissioner Jens-Arne Høilund confirms that he has had a meeting with his Russian counterpart after the incident. This is normal procedure following the Border Agreement from 1949.
– It is common for us to meet to investigate and ascertain what has happened. We have ascertained the facts: That there has been a border crossing. This meeting is part of the bilateral relationship between Norway and Russia, and has nothing to do with the police’s investigation, says Høilund to NRK.
Russia has not asked for the man’s extradition.
– They know the procedures we have in Norway, so they have not asked for it, says the border commissioner.
Learn more about the Wagner group:
Watch documentary on NRK TV: Wagner – Russia’s Lawless Army
