Maps, Kidnaps, and Tit-for-Tat

Georgia must be pleased.  Following the emergence of the news that Russia is planning to start printing maps that highlight the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by printing them in different colors from their former territory, the Georgian government will surely be itching to get its hands on whatever anti-Russian propaganda it can find.
 
And help has duly arrived, in the form of a 21-year-old Russian soldier, previously stationed in South Ossetia, who asked Georgia for asylum after donning civilian clothes and crossing the border from his military post, with which he was apparently ‘fed up’.  The story has quickly evolved into another battle of the PR ammo, with Georgian sources claiming that the soldier was found ‘starving’ and mistreated by the Russian military (although they aren’t the only ones concerned about the treatment of Russian soldiers this week), and Russian sources demanding that the ‘kidnapped’ soldier be returned home. 

You can read the details over at the New York Times.