Norwegian police have arrested the former commander of the Wagner mercenary group on suspicion of trying to return to Russia by crossing the border illegally after seeking asylum in Norway earlier this year, his lawyer said on Saturday.
Andrey Medvedev, who fled Russia in January across its Arctic border with Norway, said that he was shot by Russian border guards while fleeing.
He also spoke about participating in the fighting in Ukraine as part of the Wagner group.
Norwegian police said in a statement Friday evening that a man in his XNUMXs was detained for attempting to cross the Russian border illegally, but did not name him.
Crossing the border with Russia is allowed only in certain places.
However, Medvedev's arrest was the result of a misunderstanding, his Norwegian lawyer Brynjulf Risnes told Reuters.
"He was up there to see if he could find the place where he crossed (into Norway in January). He was stopped when he was in a taxi. He wasn't even close to the border... He didn't intend to cross the border (to Russia) at all." Risnes said.
When he came to Norway, Medvedev said he sought asylum because he feared for his life after witnessing the killing and mistreatment of prisoners in Russia brought from the front in Ukraine.
His escape in January attracted the attention of the world media as at the time a rare example of someone defecting to a Western country claiming to have fought for Russia as a mercenary in Ukraine.
However, in May he said in a video posted on YouTube that he wanted to return to Russia even though he believed it was a risk to his life, describing himself as "some kind of boy in a big game" that he no longer wanted to take part in.
Risnes said that Medvedev has the right to return to Russia if he wants to, but that "a lot of changes need to happen" to make the return safe.
In April, Medvedev was convicted in Norway of participating in a bar fight and carrying an air pistol, but was acquitted of violence against the police. He then said that he was looking to the future and hoped for asylum.
Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed on August 23 when the private plane he was flying crashed in unexplained circumstances, just two months after he briefly sent his mercenaries on a march on Moscow in a direct challenge to the Russian establishment.
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