Traitor, deserter, adolescent bumbler - or just a regular guy?

[image source]

Strange things are afoot in Georgia. According to today's Moscow Times:

A Russian soldier said Tuesday that he deserted from his unit in separatist South Ossetia and sought asylum in Georgia because of unbearable living conditions, including poor treatment and scarce food.

"I wasn't captured by Georgian police," Alexander Glukhov said in an interview at a McDonald's restaurant in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

"I ran away because I couldn't stand the conditions I was living in," he said. "I want to stay here."

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky said earlier that Glukhov had been "seized by Georgian agents in the Akhalgori district of South Ossetia and taken to Tbilisi." Russia demands Glukhov's immediate release, Drobyshevsky said by telephone in Moscow.

Georgian Interior Ministry official Shota Utiashvili said Glukhov had 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. [...]

Glukhov, 21, said he was deployed in South Ossetia on Aug. 9, the second day of the war. "But I didn't take part in military operations myself. I was assigned to dig ditches and that sort of thing," he said.

He said that if he were to return to Russia, he would not want to resume his military service. "I'd just like to go home," he said, adding that he had not considered the consequences of his actions when he fled his unit more than a week ago.

When a reporter asked to see Glukhov's military identification card during the interview, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Khizanishvili, who was present, said the card was at the ministry. He confirmed Glukhov's identity. Glukhov had earlier explained his reasons for deserting on Georgian television and displayed his ID.

Drobyshevsky suggested that Georgian agents had coerced Glukhov into making the televised comments.

"If a soldier is threatened or subjected to physical or emotional and psychological pressure, he could say absolutely anything," Drobyshevsky said.

Not surprisingly, this story is today's most blogged-about topic, according to Yandex. drugoi posted the above picture and opined, "He's no traitor, of course. He's just a fool, an adolescent, a little boy. He shouldn't be in the army, he should still be making mud pies in the sandbox."

Georgian blogger cyxymu posts video from Georgian TV and links to Glukhov's interview with Ekho Moskvy and this interesting post by Russian blogger shurigin, who appears to be a veteran and blames the whole incident on mismanagement of the military in general, and the higher command's neglect of the Russian troops in South Ossetia in particular: "The problem is that the troops in SO have been practically abandoned. It's a complete mess there [Бардак дикий]. Units are wintering in old, raggedy tents. The supply situation is horrible."

[UPDATE 1/29 - the Russian MoD is now executing a climb-down from its earlier allegations that Glukhov was kidnapped from his unit by the Georgian special services.]

Meanwhile, closer to home, a Georgian politician in exile in Northern Virginia has a column slamming Saakashvili in today's Moscow Times. Is it too cynical to entertain the possibility that Saak may have flipped from "our SOB" to Saddam-ville in less than a year, and that Georgian Chalabis are already being groomed Stateside? Actually, I think it is too cynical, but I couldn't resist raising the possibility. And just as, over the years, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, in recent years few people have gone broke overestimating the cynicism of American foreign policy.