The Russian deserter was able to obtain protection in Georgia.

The authorities of Georgia granted international protection for one year to Russian soldier Vladislav Tatarintsev, who deserted from his unit and illegally crossed the border.

Tatarintsev himself reported the positive decision, who is currently in a Georgian prison, as reported by activist Sofia Chepik to “Mediazona”*.

According to preliminary information, the decision also mentions the possibility of obtaining a refugee travel document. Chepik has not yet seen the document itself and does not know the reasoning part; the lawyer plans to obtain the original letter on September 17.

Neither Tatarintsev nor Chepik expected a positive outcome: earlier he had only received the status of an applicant for international protection and expected a denial, as Georgia generally does not grant asylum to Russians. This is the first known case since 2022 when Georgia satisfied such a request from a Russian, notes the CBTV News project.

22-year-old Tatarintsev was drafted into military service in the fall of 2024, and soon signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense, hoping that contract soldiers from the honor guard unit would not be sent to combat zones. In the summer of 2025, he was sent to Ukraine, where he worked as a draftsman at the command post near Avdiivka. Later, Tatarintsev deserted with the help of the project "Go to hell"*. He entered Georgia illegally, without documents, according to one of the Telegram channels 1 .

He lived for some time in a shelter for political emigrants, where he met Chepik. In the summer of 2026, they decided to move to Turkey to get to the European Union and apply for asylum there. Chepik crossed the border legally, Tatarintsev tried to bypass the border checkpoint through the mountains, but he was discovered by Georgian border guards and taken into custody.

The case is not related to the attempt to cross the border with Turkey, but to the fact that Tatarintsev previously illegally entered Georgia from Russia and did not apply for international protection afterward, Chepik explained. He submitted his application while already in custody and received the status of an applicant.

He was unable to provide the original military ID when submitting the application, as the document was destroyed by his mother. Later, she found photographs of documents related to her son's military service and sent them for consideration of the application.

Since granting international protection does not mean the termination of the criminal case, Tatarintsev still faces a prison sentence. The defense plans to seek a procedural agreement and request a punishment not related to actual imprisonment. The next hearing is scheduled for September 23.

"Caucasian Knot" reported that a native of Chechnya, Zelimkhan Murtazov, who deserted from military service and flew to Astana, was forced to stay for a long time in the transit zone of the airport because Kazakhstan refused to consider his asylum request. The authorities of Kazakhstan tried to get Murtazov to leave the transit zone himself, but due to the lack of a foreign passport, he could only fly to countries where there is a high risk of extradition to Russia. On April 21, it became known that Murtazov managed to leave Kazakhstan, flying to Armenia.

* included in the Russian register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.