Andrei Medvedev, the former commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, who is seeking asylum in Norway, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to an Oslo bar fight and carrying an air gun in public and said he felt “very ashamed” but said he was innocent. in violence. against a police officer, Reuters reports.

Andriy Medvedev, 26, crossed the Russian-Norwegian border in January and spoke about his time fighting with Russian forces invading Ukraine.

Medvedev pleaded guilty to a fight outside a bar in Oslo on February 22 and obstructing a police officer. He also pleaded guilty to carrying an airgun in public in a separate incident on March 14.

He pleaded not guilty to assaulting a police officer, the most serious charge he faces, carrying a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

“He understands that that evening he lost control and drank too much alcohol and had an argument with people outside the bar,” his lawyer Brynjulf ​​Risnes said of the February 22 fight.

What Andriy Medvedev says about the accusation of violence against a policeman

“He does not admit to the accusation of using violence against a policeman. It was a misunderstanding. I have never touched a policeman.”

Medvedev said he was “very ashamed” of what happened and explained his actions as his body’s instinctive reaction to the pain he felt when he was pulled from the police van.

“I had no intention of harming police officers,” he said in court.

He also said he bought an air gun at a store in Oslo for self-defense because he was afraid someone might attack him. He said that he was publicly insulted.

In Norway it is forbidden to carry air guns in public places.

What punishments are demanded by the prosecutors and is there a risk of his deportation?

Prosecutor Vegard Hertsen asked for 18 days in jail for Medvedev, including the five days he already spent in custody for violence against police and a suspended sentence for other crimes he pleaded guilty to.

The court is expected to announce the verdict and sentence by May 2.

If Medvedev is found guilty, he will not necessarily be deported from Norway. If an asylum seeker has been convicted of a violent crime, immigration officials told Reuters, temporary residency can still be granted.

A spokesman for the Norwegian Immigration Service declined to comment specifically on Medvedev’s case.

Separately, Medvedev continued the conversation with Kripos, Norway’s criminal police service that investigates war crimes, about his time with Wagner’s mercenary group in Ukraine. Russia denies allegations of war crimes in the conflict.

“We want to continue questioning him” as a witness, Kripos said in a statement to Reuters.

Medvedev told Reuters in February that he fought in Ukraine, including in the region around Bakhmut, during months of fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces that destroyed almost the entire city.

Reuters could not independently verify his claims.

Andriy Medvedev says that he recognized the voices on the video recording of the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier

Andriy Medvedev, a former commander of the “Wagner” PMK, who deserted and hid in Norway, says that he recognized the voices on the video recording of the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier.

“Vagner’s former fighter Andriy Medvedev, who fled to Norway, recognized the voices of his colleagues in the video,” said Volodymyr Osetsikin, the founder of the Gulagu.net organization, in his Telegram channel, where he published a fragment of his recording. intervention for the Khodorkovsky Live program.

According to this human rights activist, who lives in exile, the former mercenary “unequivocally recognizes his comrades there, Wagner’s fighters, by their characteristic nicknames, by the manner of speaking, by the statements on the radio” during the beheading. Ukrainian soldier.

Osechikin announced a reward of 3,000 euros for information about the people filmed in the video. The founder of Gulagu.net contacted Medvedev to review the video, due to the fact that Osetekin supported the former mercenary in his escape from Russia to Norway after the ex-combatant approached him in December 2022 with a request for help avoid reprisals after leaving. before.