A border guard unit of the Russian Federal Security Service in breakaway South Ossetia said that one of its servicemen, a 25-year-old Vitaly Khripun, was detained by the Georgian side.
The Georgian authorities said on December 21 that the Russian servicemen deserted his military post in the village of Perevi at breakaway South Ossetia’s administrative border to sought asylum in Georgia.
Khripun told the Georgian journalists that he defected to Georgia for “political reasons.”
RIA Novosti and Itar-Tass news agencies reported quoting officials from the Russian Federal Security Service in the breakaway region that Khripun went missing overnight on December 20-21. According to this report, the Russian militaries in the breakaway region found out later that Khripun was detained.
“The Georgian side was ready for the hand over of the serviceman, but later it said that it was putting off the hand over for unspecified period,” an official from the Russian FSB in South Ossetia was quoted by the Russian news agencies. According to the same report the inquiry was still ongoing to clarify all the details of the case.
In January, 2009, when the first case of Russian soldier’s defection to Georgia was reported, the Russian Defense Ministry was initially claiming that the soldier was captured by the Georgian side. But later the Russian side confirmed desertion and demanded the soldier’s extradition, but the request was turned down by Tbilisi.
The second case of this type occurred in July, 2009, who a Russian soldier abandoned his post (also in Perevi) and sought asylum in Georgia.
In June, 2009 Lieutenant Alik Bzhania, who served in the Georgian coast guard, fled Georgia to seek political asylum in Russia. At the time of defection, according to the Georgian authorities, Bzhania had already been dismissed from the coast guard.
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