Wagner Group ex-commander wants to return to Russia after seeking asylum in Norway

On Wednesday, a former commander of Russia's Wagner Group Private Military Company (PMC), who requested asylum in Norway, said he wants to return to Russia, even if it could put his life at risk. Source: Reuters, European Pravda reports. Details: Andrei Medvedev, 26, said he felt like "some kind of a boy in a big game" that he no longer wants to be a part of.

"Recently I've decided that I'm ready to go back to the Russian Federation. I've contacted the Russian embassy in Oslo for help, to facilitate my return," Medvedev said in one of five short videos on Wednesday. He added that he made this decision on his own.

"I hoped that I could find peace and calm here, that I could leave all the politics, the war, the army behind, but somehow I couldn't manage," Medvedev said.

He said he will submit the documents necessary to return to the Russian Federation on Thursday. "We shall see what would happen in Russia. If they kill me, OK.

If they don't, thanks a lot. If I live, even more thanks," he added.

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Background:

In April, Medvedev was convicted for participating in a bar fight in Oslo and carrying an air gun. At the time, he told Reuters he was looking to the future, learning Norwegian and hoping to get asylum. Medvedev fled Russia across the Norwegian border in January.

He said he crossed barbed-wire fences and evaded border patrol dogs as he ran to the sound of gunfire from Russian border guards through woods and a frozen river. Then Medvedev said he was seeking asylum in Norway because he feared for his life. He claimed that he witnessed the murders and brutal treatment of Russian prisoners recruited by Wagner Group to participate in hostilities in Ukraine.

Medvedev was the commander of a unit, which included Yevgeny Nuzhin, a Wagner mercenary, whose execution with a sledgehammer was recorded on a video that appeared on the Internet in November 2022.

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