Georgian Lieutenant Alik Bzhania, who defected to Russia seeking political asylum, said his decision was prompted by unwillingness to participate in the new war against Abkhzaia and South Ossetia.

"I am against Sahakashvili's course of declaring a new war against Abkhazia and South Ossetia. I don't want to participate in a war with Russia," he told a press conference in Moscow.

Georgian deserter said he had met with met many Navy Officers who were also against Georgia's domestic and foreign policy course but are forced to remain silent. "If anyone says a single word, he'll be dismissed from service and sent to jail. Phone conversations are also eavesdropped," RIA Novosti quote Bzhania as saying.