Andrej Medvedev says in an interview with TV 2 that he met the head of the Wagner group mercenary army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, during a stay in one of the training camps.
Medvedev has nothing positive to say about his former boss, the oligarch who goes by the nickname “Putin’s chef”.
“PUTIN’S COOK”: Yevgeny Prigozhin became very rich on lucrative government catering contracts. Photo: REUTERS/Misha Japaridze/Pool/File Photo
– How was he?
– Complacent. Pathetic, in a way. Dumb. I think he’s sick in the head. In any case, there is something that does not agree with him mentally, says Medvedev.
He further describes Prigozhin as the type of person who believes he can decide over everything and everyone and do as he pleases.
NOTORIOUS: Prigozhin heads the infamous Wagner Group, and has close personal ties to the Kremlin. Photo: Sergei Ilnitsky/AP
– The whole world knows what Wagner is like now. How they execute people. I myself remarked this to Prigozhin. But he has to live with this and get what he deserves.
Medvedev claims that one of the motives for fleeing to Norway is that the leaders of the Wagner group, and primarily Prigozhin, should be punished for what the army of mercenaries has done in the war in Ukraine.
– Prigozhin is the man responsible for me losing many of my comrades. Who were not paid what they were promised, and who died because of the orders they received from him.
As for what he himself has done in Ukraine, Medvedev is reticent with information, as long as he is still conducting interviews with the police.
– Did you kill someone in Ukraine?
– In war, for example in the Second World War, there was an expression called regular combatant. I was an ordinary soldier. I myself gave no orders, either legal or illegal.
– Killing of civilians, have you participated in it?
– As long as I was associated with this company, I heard or saw nothing to suggest that Wagner killed civilians. Maybe they kept it hidden, but I never saw anything like that myself.
WAGNER: Soldiers outside the Wagner Group headquarters which opened in St. Petersburg last November. Photo: OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP
Medvedev describes the organization as difficult to understand, but claims that he was hardly in contact with the civilian population at any time.
He also says that the group had strict rules and punishments.
Risking the “hammer of vengeance”
The Wagner group also has it for people they believe betray them, such as Medvedev.
– For them I am a traitor.
Therefore, he is certain that he will be killed if he returns to Russia.
– They will not be interested in having someone like me in prison, when they smash other people’s heads to pieces with sledgehammers or shoot them in public. No, I want to be cleared of the road immediately.
In November, a video circulated on the Telegram messaging service, showing the brutal execution of a Wagner soldier who surrendered in Ukraine and was later returned to Russia.
He had his head taped to a brick wall and was beaten to death with a sledgehammer.
Prigozhin defended the execution, saying that it was “a dog that got a dog’s death”, and that the soldier who was beaten to death was a man who had betrayed his people and comrades.
– I am going to be killed, that is the only thing waiting for me in Russia, Medvedev answers questions about what he thinks will happen if he is sent back.
– As a former warrior in Wagner, are you dangerous?
– No, I’m just an ordinary man. I have no evil intentions. I just want to live my life in a country where they respect human rights and freedom. Just live a normal life and start life over.
Apologize to Ukrainians
Medvedev says that the war in Ukraine has changed him.
– It was quite scary to feel how I myself had changed. Because of the Russian propaganda. I grew up in an orphanage and was always told how important patriotism was. And that, to discover at some point that all this was just bullshit, that they were saying this just to convince me of their ideas. I do not know…
He says he believes that the war should never have started, that Ukraine is a sovereign state, and that both Donbas and Crimea are part of Ukraine.
– Before, everything was fine, and we could travel and visit each other. Now there are disagreements, misunderstandings and enmity. I don’t know why it has become like this.
He understands that Ukrainians in Norway react negatively to his coming here.
– I understand that for them I am evil. That they will surely despise me. But I want to apologize to them. I am only 26 years old and have acknowledged that what I did was wrong.
Think more people want to get away from Wagner
Medvedev says he is speaking out about what happened because he wants to do everything he can, even if it may not be much, to prevent more terrible things from happening in Ukraine.
He says he is also ready to explain himself to representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, should they wish to question him.
THE ESCAPE: With the map in front of him, Andrej Medvedev explains to TV 2 how he managed to cross the border into Norway on 13 January. Photo: Christian Roth Christensen / TV 2
When asked if he is in contact with old friends in Wagner or Russia now, he answers no. At the same time, he believes that sooner or later they will resume contact.
Many of those he was in Ukraine with are back in Russia. Some have been injured and ended up in hospital, while some left after their contracts expired.
– But I think everyone is on the same page as me. Many who were in Wagner with me just wanted to leave. But they don’t make it.
