TBILISI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Georgia paraded a Russian soldier on Tuesday who said he had deserted from Russian forces in South Ossetia to escape mistreatment, but Moscow said the man had been abducted and demanded his return.
“I plan to live here for a while. I just spoke to my mum to
calm her down,” 21-year-old Alexander Glukhov told Reuters at a
McDonald’s restaurant in Tbilisi, where he was eating dinner.
Georgian Interior Ministry officials were present at the
fastfood restaurant.
Dressed in jeans and trainers, Glukhov said he had asked for
asylum, saying conditions with Russian forces in breakaway South
Ossetia were unbearable.
Russia demanded his immediate return and said Georgian
officials might have forced him into making statements that
discredited the Russian military.
Eating a ‘BigMac’ hamburger and sipping a Coca-Cola, Glukhov
denied being captured or subjected to pressure.
“I came to the Georgian side of my own will, to ask for
political asylum because I had problems with the commander of my
battalion,” he said.
Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in August last year
when Russia repelled a Georgian military bid to retake
pro-Moscow South Ossetia which broke away from central Georgian
rule as the Soviet Union was collapsing. Thousands of Russian
troops are stationed in the rebel territory.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Khizanishvili
said Glukhov would be given accommodation in one of the
thousands of homes Georgia built after the war for refugees.
The Russian military said Glukhov was a conscientious
soldier who had wanted to extend his service in the army and
that he had been captured South Ossetia’s Akhalgori region.
“The commander of Russia’s military contingent in South
Ossetia addressed Georgian security bodies in Gori, demanding
they immediately release the Russian soldier,” said Colonel Igor
Konashenkov, aide to the commander of Russia’s ground forces.
Akhalgori lies on the southeastern corner of South Ossetia
and was controlled by Tbilisi before last year’s fighting, but
is now held by Russian troops. A European Union mission is
monitoring a ceasefire along the boundary line.
Earlier, Glukhov was shown on Georgian television dressed in
military uniform and making a statement to camera.
“I am asking the president of Georgia to grant me asylum,”
he said. “I cannot bear the hardship Russian soldiers are
experiencing here anymore. I hope asylum will be granted.”
Georgian Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili said
Glukhov handed himself over to Georgian police on Monday,
complaining that the major of his unit had been beating him.
“We did not detain him. He is free and can do whatever he
wants,” Utiashvili said. “He can go back to Russia, or stay in
Georgia.”
(Additional reporting by James Kilner and Dmitry Solovyov in
Moscow; writing by James Kilner and Matt Robinson; Editing by
Elizabeth Piper)
