A Russian deserter’s flight to Norway presents his host with a tricky dilemma
Andrei Medvedev sipped a $12 beer in one of the world’s wealthiest capitals and pondered the question that has haunted him ever since he left the battlefields of Ukraine: Is he a hero or a war criminal?
He claims to have deserted from Russia’s infamous Wagnerian mercenary during the monumental battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, and later fled his native Russia by running across a frozen Arctic river. Now in Norway, Mr Medvedev, 26, is seeking asylum while providing information about Wagner to Norwegian authorities.
Since his arrival in the country in January, Mr Medvedev has voluntarily participated in a dozen interviews with Norwegian police officers investigating war crimes in Ukraine, including his possible role therein. Mr Medvedev has described killing Ukrainians in fighting and witnessing summary executions of comrades accused of cowardice. He claims that he did not participate in or witness war crimes such as the killing of prisoners of war and civilians.
“Yes, I have killed, I have seen comrades die. It was war,” he said in an interview in a bar in Oslo. “I have nothing to hide.”
His improbable journey has made Mr. Medvedev one of the few publicly known Russian fighters to seek protection in Europe after taking part in the invasion. His asylum request now forces Norway to make a decision on a case that pits the country’s humanitarian stance against an increasingly assertive national security policy and solidarity with Ukraine.
To his lawyer, the credible threat of revenge Mr Medvedev faces should he be sent home qualifies him for asylum. And some Norwegian politicians have said that encouraging soldiers like Mr Medvedev to defect would weaken the Russian army and hasten the end of the war.
But as Norway evaluates its claim, it has come under pressure from activists in Ukraine and Western Europe, who say giving Russian fighters, especially mercenaries like Mr Medvedev, a safe haven in Europe fails to hold Russians accountable. hold for the invasion. And the former combatant may have made his own request more difficult with bar fights and detentions in Norway, and by briefly posting a video on YouTube suggesting he wanted to return to Russia.
More broadly, Mr Medvedev’s case highlights a policy dilemma that European governments have largely avoided grappling with in public: how should the region deal with Russian deserters and Russia’s hundreds of thousands of fighters? war in Ukraine, in general?
“It touches the core of who we are in Europe,” said Cecilie Hellestveit, an expert in armed conflict law affiliated with Norway’s human rights watchdog and a former member of the country’s asylum commission. “It forces us to reevaluate our approach to human rights in a way we have been unwilling to do until now.”
The European Union and member states such as Norway have previously had to strike a balance between humanitarian needs and accountability for war crimes, most recently when processing immigration claims from people who fought in the civil wars in the Balkans and in Syria.
But the scale of the war in Ukraine, its proximity to the European Union and the participation of two conventional armies means that the Russian invasion poses a much greater challenge to the region’s asylum system, Ms Hellestveit said.
Four months after Mr Medvedev applied for asylum, his application remains pending. Norway’s immigration service said all asylum applications filed by Russians who fled to avoid military service have been suspended while they analyze the country’s human rights record. The agency said it could not comment on individual applications for privacy reasons.
Some humanitarian law experts in Norway say Mr Medvedev’s unresolved request reflects the government’s unwillingness to draw further attention to a matter that could divide the public, to prejudge the policies of other European states and relations with Kiev. Norway is a staunch supporter of the Ukrainian cause, pledging $7.5 billion in economic and military aid and has taken in about 40,000 Ukrainian refugees.
“This case has a lot of conflicting rights, a lot of conflicting obligations and a lot of conflicting politics,” said Paal Nesse, the head of the Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers, a non-profit organization that provides legal aid to asylum seekers.
Norway and EU countries are struggling to find a common approach to asylum applications submitted by Russians who have fled the country to avoid military service, a much larger group of asylum seekers than men involved in combat, such as Mr Medvedev .
The European Union Agency for Asylum said in a written response to questions that it is up to member states to decide who deserves protection.
Pavel Filatiev, a former Russian paratrooper who applied for asylum in France after fighting in Ukraine, said he was waiting for a decision eight months after submitting his application. A third publicly known Russian deserter in Europe, a former army mechanic named Nikita Chibrinhas been processing an asylum application in Spain since November.
The legal uncertainty, financial problems and social isolation are hard to bear, Mr Filatiev said in a telephone interview, but added that he considered himself lucky and grateful to his French hosts.
“I understand that my decision to leave will always haunt me,” he said.
Mr. Medvedev has a difficult history of antisocial behavior. He has already been detained twice in Norway for being involved in fights in bars and once in Sweden for entering the country illegally. (He was sent back to Norway.) In Russia, he spent four years in prison for robbery and brawling, according to court documents.
People who know him have said those actions could be the result of a lifetime of trauma: in a violent family home, a Siberian orphanage and Russian prisons, and on Ukrainian battlefields.
In addition to his run-ins with the law, Mr Medvedev said he had also repeatedly clashed with Ukrainians in Oslo, most recently while visiting a local Soviet military memorial on Victory Day.
Such confrontations have highlighted tensions between the Russian defectors and Ukrainian refugees across Europe. Natalia Lutsyk, the head of the Ukrainian Association in Norway, said the lack of international cooperation prevented Norway and other countries from thoroughly investigating war crimes in Ukraine.
“In this way, Medvedev and his companions go unpunished,” she added.
The New York Times spent several weeks interviewing Mr Medvedev and researching his personal history since he left the front in November and went into hiding in Russia. His account of his military service contained contradictory or unverifiable claims. However, some basic facts of his life have been confirmed by public records and interviews with acquaintances.
The weight of this evidence shows that Mr. Medvedev joined Wagner in July 2022, two days after serving his last prison sentence.
Wagner founder Yevgeny V. Prigozhin in April called Mr. Medvedev a “bastard who spent two days in Wagner, whom no one can identify”. After his escape to Norway, Mr. Prigozhin called him dangerous. He has not publicly threatened Mr. Medvedev.
In an interview in Oslo, Mr. Medvedev’s new living conditions, largely provided by the Norwegian state. According to him, this includes a home, home visits by a Norwegian teacher, an integration assistant, ski and mountain bike tours and “Taco Saturdays” with a personal safety detail.
He also claims to be the subject of a bidding war between filmmakers, a claim that could not be verified.
But days after the interview, Mr. Medvedev stated that he had contacted the Russian embassy to get help on his return home.
“I hope that I can find peace and tranquility here, that I can leave politics, war, the army behind,” he said. a video published on YouTube. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
He later deleted the videos and again refused to speak when contacted by phone.
His lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes, said his public comments should not affect the asylum application, which was decided on humanitarian grounds. But Mr Medvedev’s violent past and controversial behavior, which has made him a minor local celebrity, has confused and alienated many Norwegians, undermining sympathy for Russian defectors.
Under Norwegian law, a refusal to fight in an illegal war can give a right to asylum. However, this right does not apply to war criminals and local prosecutors can charge people they believe have committed war crimes elsewhere.
A spokesman for Norway’s criminal police said Mr Medvedev was a witness, not a suspect, in her investigation into war crimes in Ukraine, and that to date officers have “found no grounds for charges”.
Mr Medvedev said his cooperation had helped investigators locate Wagner facilities in Ukraine and Russia and map out the structure of the group.
The case is also being followed by Ukrainian officials, who are conducting their own investigation into Mr Medvedev. Shortly after his arrival in Norway, Ambassador of Ukraine in Oslo told local news media that her government could ask for his extradition.
Such a request would place Norway in another dilemma, forcing it to choose between showing support for an ally or upholding the basic principle of its asylum law. This law states that an asylum seeker may not be sent to a country where he may not receive a fair trial.
Ukraine’s attorney general’s office said in a written response to questions that it has screened all Russian military personnel arriving abroad for possible participation in war crimes, and has requested Norway’s legal assistance in investigating the Mr. Medvedev.
Mr Medvedev said he had refused to see Ukrainian investigators who wanted to meet him in Norway.
“They’re always after me,” he said. “I’m helping them end this war.”
Constant Meheut contributed reporting from Paris, Alina Lobzina from London and Natalia Yermak from Kyiv, Ukraine.