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Georgia paraded a Russian soldier on Tuesday who said he had deserted from Russian forces in South Ossetia to escape mistreatment, but Moscow said the man had been abducted and demanded his return.

"I plan to live here for a while. I just spoke to my mum to calm her down," 21-year-old Alexander Glukhov told Reuters at a McDonald's restaurant in downtown Tbilisi, where he was eating dinner.

Georgian Interior Ministry officials were present at the fastfood restaurant.

Dressed in jeans and trainers, Glukhov said he had asked for asylum, saying conditions with Russian forces in breakaway South Ossetia were unbearable.

Russia demanded his immediate return and said Georgian officials might have forced him into making statements that discredited the Russian military.

Eating a 'BigMac' hamburger and sipping a Coca-Cola, Glukhov denied being captured or subjected to pressure.

"I came to the Georgian side of my own will, to ask for political asylum because I had problems with the commander of my battalion," he said.

Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in August last year when Russia repelled a Georgian military bid to retake pro-Moscow South Ossetia which broke away from central Georgian rule as the old Soviet Union was collapsing. Thousands of Russian troops are stationed in the rebel territory.

The Russian military said Glukhov was a conscientious soldier who had wanted to extend his service in the Russian army and that he had been captured in the Akhalgori region of South Ossetia.

"The commander of Russia's military contingent in South Ossetia addressed Georgian security bodies in Gori, demanding they immediately release the Russian soldier," Colonel Igor Konashenkov, aide to the commander of Russia's ground forces, told Reuters.

ASYLUM

Akhalgori lies on the southeastern corner of South Ossetia and was controlled by Tbilisi before last year's fighting, but is now held by Russian troops. Georgian forces are in a tense standoff there with Russian and separatist troops near the town of Gori.

Earlier, Glukhov was shown on Georgian television dressed in military uniform and making a statement to camera.

"I am asking the president of Georgia to grant me asylum," he said. "I cannot bear the hardship Russian soldiers are experiencing here anymore. I hope asylum will be granted."

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. "He can go back to Russia, or stay in Georgia."