Substantial-rating Wagner Team member seeks asylum in Norway

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Russian guy who reportedly is a previous significant-position member of the Russian personal armed forces contractor Wagner Team, has sought asylum in Norway, authorities said Monday.

The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, also known by its Norwegian acronym UDI, confirmed to The Linked Push that Andrey Medvedev has sought shelter in Norway.

“For motives of protection and privateness, the UDI simply cannot comment further more on this subject,” UDI mentioned in an e mail to the AP.

Medvedev’s Norwegian lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes, was not straight away out there for comment.

The scenario was handed to the Norwegian immigration police and the male was transferred to Oslo, wherever he was positioned in a centre for violators of migration laws. Law enforcement in Norway have declined to comment on the case.

Past week, law enforcement in Arctic Norway reported a man or woman experienced illegally entered from Russia by crossing the two countries’ border, which is 198 kilometers (123 miles) prolonged.

The gentleman, who was only discovered by authorities as a foreigner, was detained by border guards and the arrest was undramatic, police explained. The guy is reported to have visited a private property in the border space and questioned for assistance. Police reported that they experienced been notified late Thursday by Russian border guards who discovered traces in the snow that could point out that somebody experienced crossed the border illegally.

It is thought that man or woman was identical with Medvedev, who in accordance to the Norwegian news agency NTB on Monday has been on the run due to the fact he defected from the Wagner Group on July 6. He reportedly has instructed a Russian human rights team that he is completely ready to explain to anything he is aware of about the Wagner Group, its routines and its operator Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Wagner Group features a large amount of convicts recruited in Russian prisons who have spearheaded assaults in Ukraine. The team has has come to be increasingly influential in Africa, the place it has been pushing Russian disinformation, making alliances with regimes and attaining obtain to oil, gasoline, gold, diamonds and beneficial minerals.