Finland deports Wagner fighter back to Russia
The soldier who illegally snuck into Finland through the woods and asked for asylum in June was deported back to Russia on Friday.
It was in the evening on June 17 that the North Karelian Border Guards detained a man for illegally crossing the border from Russia into Finland in Välivaara. This forested area, which is located north of the Russian town of Sortavala, has no fence on the Finnish side.
The man asked for asylum in Finland, according to the Border Guards' short news release.
In July, Finnish broadcaster YLE reported about the asylum seeker's background being a mercenary with the notorious Wagner group. The man had posted videos in social media showing himself in Wagner uniform in areas in Ukraine where serious war crimes have occurred.
The man, identified as Yevgeny, said in the social media video that his assault unit had fought in eastern Ukraine, including in Bakhmut and around Selydove.
In the video, he harshly criticizes Russia for its treatment of soldiers and for lying to their families. Yevgeny was according to YLE recruited to the Wagner Group directly from prison where he was serving a 6-year sentence for robbing a jewelry store in Omsk in 2023.
His request for protection in Finland, however, was turned down.
On Friday November 14, the Finnish Border Guard informed that the man now is deported back to Russia.
"The North Karelia Border Guard is exceptionally publishing information about the deportation of an individual from the country, because views were expressed in public during the summer about the person's background. The Border Guard does not take a position on the accuracy of the claims made in public, but states that the person has a military background," the agency said in a statement to newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
In January 2023, another Wagner mercenary ran across Russia's border with Norway and asked for asylum. The man, Andrei Medvedev, later told the Barents Observer that he fears being killed if he returns to Russia.
Medvedev is still in Norway where he continues to make headlines, including for violence against police who brought him in for fighting outside a bar and carrying a soft gun in Oslo.
