Georgian authorities immediately derided the announcement by Alik Bzhania, 35, which came a few months after Russia suffered the embarrassment of having one of its own military personnel desert to Georgia.

Russia crushed Georgia in a brief war last summer, and Bzhania _ who joined Georgia's Black Sea coast guard in October _ said he fled May 23 to avoid another outbreak of fighting.

"(President) Mikhail Saakashvili intends to restart the war," Bzhania said. "I don't intend to fight against my brothers."

Bzhania said he had expressed displeasure with Saakashvili's political course and feared persecution within his unit.

Georgian Reintegration Minister Temuri Yakobashvili said Bzhania had been discharged May 18 for disciplinary violations that he would not disclose.

Yakobashvili accused Russian special services trying to overshadow Georgia's public relations victory earlier this year, when Russian Sgt. Alexander Glukhov fled his unit, saying conditions were unbearable.

Russia initially accused Georgia of kidnapping Glukhov but then charged the soldier with desertion.

Bzhania denied that the Russian special services had used him to contrive a defection story.

"I thought, now or never, and fled," Bzhania said. Asked for proof of his account, Bzhania produced what he said was an identification card that should be turned in upon leaving service.

Russia's Federal Migration Service said Bzhania had applied for political asylum.

Saakashvili is unpopular with many in Georgia who say he should never have dragged the country into an unwinnable war against Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Thousands of Russian troops remain in South Ossetia and in Abkhazia, another breakaway region on the Black Sea.

The opposition has been holding daily protests in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, since April to demand Saakashvili's resignation.