After a bar fight, a former fighter in Putin’s ruthless private army, the Wagner Group, is accused of assaulting a police officer.
Andrei Medvedev, who claimed to have escaped from Putin’s vicious band of mercenaries last month, is said to have been involved in the altercation in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
After a brawl at a pub in the city centre, the ex-commander of a Wagner Group branch was taken into custody for allegedly assaulting police officers while in custody.
According to prosecution documents, the alleged altercation happened on the evening of February 21.
According to reports, Medvedev struck a police officer when he refused to submit to custody.
The statement reads: “On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at about 5:00 am, when several police officers and other law enforcement officers were taking him [Medvedev] out of a police car in the courtyard of the central detention centre, he resisted and kicked one or more officers.”
The ex-fighter from Russia struggled with Norwegian and had trouble expressing himself, the lawyer continued.
He entered a not guilty plea while being questioned, and he has since been freed pending trial.
In January of this year, Medvedev entered Norway without authorization from Russia and quickly requested shelter there.
He has given several appearances to international media during that period, adamantly denying any wrongdoing related to the Wagner Group and claiming he was running from the savagery of Putin’s unlawful war in Ukraine.
Speaking to TV 2 in Norway, Medvedev said that he had entered the country across the frozen-over Pasvik River.
He acquired a passport in the name of another person who looked like him from an unnamed man and passed through a checkpoint at Titovka in the Murmansk region of northwestern Russia.
He was detained in a deportation facility in the Norwegian town of Trandum from January 23 to 25, after which he was transferred to a covert residence in Oslo.
He told the Norwegian media that he intended to establish a new life there and write a book about the crimes committed by the Wagner Gang.
Moreover, Medvedev declared his desire to prosecute Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group and dubbed “Putin’s chef.”
According to reports, opposition activist Vladimir Osechkin, who had been working on the expulsion of the former mercenary since December, assisted in bringing him to Russia in part.
Osechkin claims that Medvedev’s life is in danger in Russia, and will be able to testify against both President Putin and the
Medvedev informed The Insider that he was aware of ten instances where Wagnerists executed hired guns who declined to engage in combat.
He asserts that he witnessed several executions firsthand.
