Second Russian soldier seeks asylum in Georgia
15:3102/07/2009 TBILISI, July 2 (RIA Novosti) - A second Russian soldier has requested asylum in Georgia, the Georgian ministry of refugees said on Thursday.
Dmitri Artemyev, who is currently being held at the UN office in Tbilisi, said he left his post after being "treated badly" at the Russian base in the South-Ossetian controlled village of Perevi near the Georgian town of Sachkhere, the Rustavi-2 channel reported.
A spokesman for the Georgian Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation confirmed the report, saying the Russian serviceman had already been granted asylum seeker status.
A North Caucasus military source cited hazing as a possible cause.
"According to our present information, Artemyev left his military base as a result of being hazed by other servicemen," the spokesman said, adding that the soldier had deserted late on Wednesday.
In late January, Russian Jr. Sgt. Alexander Glukhov deserted his unit in South Ossetia and requested asylum in Georgia. The Russian Defense Ministry initially said Glukhov had been seized by Georgian special services and forcibly taken to Tbilisi. However, Glukhov denied the claims, saying he had fled due to the intolerable conditions in his unit.
In late June he was given refugee status and a job in Georgia.
Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war last August which began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in a bid to bring the republic back under central control. Two weeks after the end of the war, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic, as independent states.
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