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Last winter, Mr Medvedev crossed the Norwegian border with Russia and sought asylum in Norway. He reportedly fled from the Wagner group. Now he wants to return to Russia. The questions I am asking are essentially the same ones I asked last winter when he crossed the border. Read my blog about what I wrote then.

Wagner group on EU terror list?

France wants the Wagner Group on the EU list of terrorist organisations. Not only for what they are doing in Ukraine, but also for what they are doing in Africa and the Middle East. The UK has already put the organisation on the list of terrorist organisations. Recently, the French Parliament passed a resolution in favour of the EU listing the Wagner Group.

Inclusion on the list will have primarily a symbolic value. But it is also likely to bring with it the responsibility of being part of the group. Perhaps this is what Mr Medvedev fears. Wagner Group Chairman Yevgeny Prigozhin and other Wagner Group executives are already on the EU sanctions list. Labelling the organisation as a terrorist organisation is far more serious for the organisation as a whole.

What exactly is Andrei Medvedev doing in Norway?

The question of what Medvedev is really doing here is becoming more and more of an unanswered question for me. Now that he wants to return to Russia, fear for his own life can hardly be the reason he fled. He himself says that he feels like a “Boy in a big game” and that he doesn’t want to be one anymore. Then my question is what he really expected. Did he expect that he would not be investigated for possible war crimes committed in Ukraine? Or did he expect the Wagner group to leave him alone in Norway if his story is indeed true?

I find it very strange that he wants to return to a country he supposedly fled from. A dramatic escape that, according to him, included shots fired at him by Russian border guards and a drama that is almost indescribable.

It seems to me that he fears the EU’s labelling of the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation more than he fears reprisals when he returns to Russia. His story doesn’t make sense.

Sources:

Wagner-avhopper – Vil tilbake til Russland (dagbladet.no)

Wagner Group – Wikipedia

UK poised to label Wagner group terrorists as France urges EU to act | Russia | The Guardian

French Parliament calls on EU to list Wagner as ‘terrorist group’ (lemonde.fr)