Vladimir Osetshkin was on his way to the dinner table with plates of spaghetti for the children in his hands. Then he saw the red laser beam dancing across the wall.
He knew what was brewing.
The Russian turned off the lights. Together with the wife, they got the children down on the floor, before they went off to another part of the apartment. How to start CNN the story of the Russian dissident.
Helped ex-Wagner to Norway
We go back a few years in time: In 2015, Vladimir Osetshkin fled from Russia to France, where he applied for asylum. Today he has full police protection.
In addition to being an investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist, he is, according to himself, helping more and more Russian people – both former generals and intelligence officers – who want to leave Putin’s Russia.
– Since 24 February, more and more people have asked me for help to get them out. But now people ask for our help every single day, he adds CNN.
Many are ordinary private soldiers, but also higher up in the system. a former minister, a general decorated with three stars… CNN has confirmed that he helped out a former FSB officer and Wagner people.
Ex-leader in Wagner has fled to Norway
Arrested abroad
In January helped Osetshkin also the former Wagner soldier Andrej Medvedev to Norway. He feared for his life when he refused to renew his contract with Wagner, according to CNN.
– When people are high up in the system, they understand how the machine of Putin’s regime works. Going against them entails huge risks, such as being killed or poisoned with novizhok, says Oseshkin.
It has consequences. Oseshkin is on the Russian authorities’ “wanted list” and has also been arrested “in absentia” in Russia. He lives with continuous armed protection provided by the French authorities – and lives at a secret address.
– In the last ten years, I have done a lot to protect human rights and people. But now I realized that my calling to help others creates a very big risk for my family, says Oseshkin CNN.
TV2 have also had a case about Osetshkin’s rescue work, when last year they met the Russian Pavel Filatyev – and the man who helped him out of Russia, Vladimir Osetshkin. Both currently live in a secret location in France.
Death threats
He has received a number of death threats, and the French state is investigating several “death threats” against him, according to the report EuroNews: “Vladimir, be careful. There has already been an offer of advance payment to get rid of you,” wrote a Chechen contact in February last year.
Then Oseshkin has also done a lot that upsets Putin and his people. Already in 2011, he founded Gulagu.netwhich is a human rights organization that exposes torture and human rights violations committed by the Russian authorities.
So what happened to Osechkin’s family that afternoon when the laser danced on the wall? They escaped in terror.
Dagbladet also recently conducted a major interview with Osetshkin about Wagner defector Andrej Medvedev’s flight to Norway.
– We understood that his life could be in danger. When he realized that he could be arrested and then handed over to Prigozhin – who could have him killed, he fled, he tells Dagbladet.
